Pilanita has landed in Bangkok. Bangkok is amazing- very arty, modern and cultural city. All you have to do is to get out of this crazy Khaosan Rd.





Those are first impresions from the city:

The shopping decorated for Christmas.






Mr McDonald says hello in Thai (its sound like that: sawatdee krup....). Dont forget to put your hands in praying position and to gently bend your body and nod.


and now the question for music lovers- where is Pili Harvey and what is she listening to?





...and now guys we are going back to our raft house at the River Kwai to watch two-metres-long iguanas and to listen to thai aerobic music drinking watermelon shake and wishing you all Merry Christmas

Pilanita is finally in Indochina:) the trip from India to Bangkok was really long and tough. The train from Vanarasi to Kolkata was only 9 hours late, so this made our trip 21 ours long. BUt it was really entertaing- each station a big circus group came to the train- singing women, playing the rubber pipe on the body (sounds weird, heh?) boys, 25 years old guys tickling and smacking each other on the face just for fun and the tranvestie fortune teller and people selling everything:)

The travel for Kolkata to Bangkok was as much fan as the previous one, but this time the artists were all Western- flight was only 8 hours late but the bunch of crazy hippies with flutes, guitars, tai chi exercises' show made sure we couldn't get too bored.

Publish Post

Publish Post

Pilanita in Varanasi

Varanasi is a holy city for Hindi people. The life of people living there is connected with Mother Ganga River. Every day at the sunrise and sunset the puja celebration takes place at the bank of the river.



The river beside the religious place of worship is a place of burning bodies. Ghats at the river are also used for everyday washing, dancing, yoga and evenig hanging out with friends and playing the music.


As everywhere in India there were some surreal images of the city, like the goat wearing t-shirts and guy addicted to his TV series (beware guys;)

Darjeeling...

Pilanita visiteted Gorkhaland (the part of West Bengal that ask for getting the status of autonomy within the state). People from this part of India are claim to be descentes of Nepali people, and the customs and way of life is different than in other parts of the country. People are shy and not so involved into tourist business. Darjeeling's everyday trouble is shortage with water and electricity cut off, but those problems are not in the main interest of West Bengal's council.



Darjeeling is well known because of the tea plantation, we have visited one of them and now we are great in making super fine orange flavour tea:)

Into the wild...

This is post for all of you that dream about going into the wild... This is the 'thank you' post for all of those that give us a support. thanks for all feedback about our fantastic webpage.

Pilanita is aware that most of her followers and faithful fans are very concern about the nature and wild life in asia. some pictures of himalayan animals- we were sooo lucky to have the rare chance to spot them in wild nature.

Ladies and gentelman! there are red pandas, rhinos and black himalayan bears. Enjoy the show!

Top 5 of Nepal

1) Sauraha Kitchen.. Family run restaurant. Very good dal bhat and lovely people, and you are sure that your money goes to the local people, the ones who need it most.





2)Snowman restaurant- very nice cafe shop in Freak Street and the best chocolate cake we have ever tried (and you know we tried a lot of them so far).






3)Pilanita have tried Tibetan beer- a bit smelly but interesting taste... and look at the size of that.. would be impressive even for Irish people.




4) Machhapuchhre View Point lodge - The lodge we have slept on our trek- a nice stop in Taglung on the tiring steep climb to Chomrung.





5)Forest Resort- Swiss/Nepali guest house in Sauraha. A nice and quiet place to rest after spending the day exploring the jungle in Chitwan National Park. The cleanest we have found in Nepal... and really cheap!

6) Paradise Travellers Guesthouse in Freak Street. There is a mix of feeling here... We didnt know if mention this guesthouse in the top 5 of where not to stay in Katmandu, but finally we decided to recommend it because because they don't work as a travel agency, they just give you good advice about how to move in the city.

Welcome to Pilanita's jungle.
We went to Chitwan National Park in Nepal, where we were told we could see some wild animals. First day we followed the suggestion that sleeping inside the jungle will provide you exciting experience of seeing the wild tiger hunting on the poor deer. That was quite expensive adventure but a bit boring... As you can see it was pretty foggy and after sunset you could see absolutely nothing. Anyway we were lucky enough to see some wild creatures and took picture of them. Parental Advisory- those pictures might contain the images that might be scary to some people.
Next day Pilanita (after sleeping so tight in the jungle) went for elephant safari. And they were a bit late so they just got the back seats.
And the last things to say- bath with elephant is great fun! very cheerful and memorable experience.

Kathmandu- magical city of Buddhist and Hindu temples and naughty erotic carvings (!) Pilanita was shocked but decided to share those tips with you guys). We have stayed in the Freak Street (where else could we stay?) that is in the heart of Durbar Square (on the picture), a place of medieval temples and fruit markets. Amazing city.

We have to say that. Pilanita was not well prepared for the trekking. First did not have enough stamina and motivation (but we got a great supply of energy from big amount of food, ie. cookies, muesli, energetic bars, kit kats and by occasionally chats with people that were notoriously lying to us that its really close to the peak of the mountain). We have learned what NOT to wear on the trekking.
1)do not wear baggy trousers- its comfy in the city but too thin for cold night and high altitudes, also not the best idea for climbing the stairs...
2)do not take two pairs of socks.... you can do laundry everyday (so we did) but you will end up walking like a horse-clothes
3)do not take sticks found out in the forest- without a handle of professional walking sticks you can hurt your hands.
4)do not take summer thin sleeping bag or you will end up begging for 3 blankets and sleeping in winter outfit, ie. hats, gloves, woolen socks.
5)do not take the torch bought in 1 euro shop, its not strong enough... definitely not
But..we had great shoes:) don't forget to take that.

Pilanita did trekking in Annapurna Circuit. Famous of their individuality they chose their own trek- a bit of Annapurna Base Camp and party of Gorakhpur- Gandruk Loop and Poon Hill (3220m) The trekk took us 5 hard days...(especially the last day back when we did 2300metres down- walking on the stairs... We had an opportunity to home stay in local Gorkha villages (one of those is shown on the picture). We share local dishes with host, that means we ate dal bhat 3 times a day (big portion of rice, vegetable curry and lentils soup) ad you get the second every time your plate looks a bit emptier. Although the trek was a bit exhausting we enjoyed it a lot- especially because we could see the local customs and way of life. Life in the mountain is very difficult, everything has to be brought up and back by porters. we were complaining about the weight of our backpack but those people need to have enough strength to bring everyday item to their homes. And surprisingly they do it with the smile on their face and great positive attitude.

Nepal- Pokhara

Pilanita has spent last week in Pokhara. The travel by bus from Indian border was really exciting...

Buses in Nepal are overcrowded and there os no alternative way of transport. People even accept to travel on the roof with all the luggage and goats and the music bands...

Usually the guy sitting on the roof has some work to do: to make sure the luggage is still on the right place and to give some signals to the driver that has limited visibility on the curvy road.

Pilanita after hours of confusion has learnt how to recognised those signals perfectly:

1)one bang on the roof means: go ahead!!

2)whistle means stop! there is a passanger waiting on the road

3)hehee!! means stop somebody got sick!

But it was worth it. Pokhara is a magical, peaceful place. We were lucky to cycle around the beautiful lake (and by the way it was the only one city were traffic wasn't too chaotic to have a ride). We were trainig before the first serious trekk in our "everything but fit life"

On pictures the buffalo- Hindi people don't eat cows, but they munch this cute animal with pleasure... go well with momos. Pokhara lake and the public laundry.

Karma Police 3

It was the rip-off day... nobody was very welcome to help Pilanita in he hard trip to Nepal. Riksha puller took her to different place than asked, man in the money change counter cheated, and Pilanita almost had to sleep at the train station, as she did not book any hotel (she never does) in Gorakhpur..After an hour of walking in the middle of the night she found the place- Elora Shithole (hello, recommended by Lonely Planet-editors update it please). The room was expensive and conditions as bad as at the station...

But it was not so bad, we could have our luggage 'cut' by rats

Karma Police 2

Pilanita got massive parcels with Christmas gifts and the post office in Rishikesh refused to send them, just an hour before the train departure, so Pilanita had to carry them on the top of her head (she also has 4 backbags) trainig before trekking in Nepal;)

karma police

Pilanita got caught by karma police. In Rishikesh Pilanita did not support the guest house keeper's fund for leg surgery (she just was not sure if that was true or not) and on the way to Nepal she found out that she got punished for her lack of sensitivity as the travel to Nepal became a 3 days nightmare (yeah yeah, 3 days travel from Rishikesh to Pokhara).

The punishement was as follow:

1) Pilanita did not charge her mp3 player so she had to listen snoring and spitting and answering questions: are you married? whats your fathers name? whats your salary? and so on....

Pilanita decided to pretend she was sleeping, as you can see she was acting pretty well...(for 12 hours)

16-11-09 - Rafting in Ganga River

Pilanita was exploring the Holy Ganga River. We went for 20 km long rafting and it was great fun. we were forced to jump (Anita was pushed there just before she finished saying: I'm not going to jump there...) to very cold river and while diving we drunk some Holy Ganga. The current was very strong and we were drifting in the water for a long while... Really cold but good experience.

11-11-09 to 17-11-09 - Rishikesh- Animal planet

Animal planet in Rishikesh. We had experienced different attacks of animals in Rishikesh. We found out that there is an organized crime.

Monkeys' mafia try to steal all kind of food and electronic stuff like digital cameras and phones. They cooperate with cows that gently grab food from the people bags.

Their helper- the bull after chewing a newspaper gets hiccup and blocks the way to the bridge that leads to our guesthouse.

Wild pigs go for hunting in the middle of the night with group of piglets. Mice are in every restaurant, but our favorite one is a pet in the Office, where they serve the best banana and chocolate samosa in the city. The mouse must love them too.

On our yoga classes we have learned how to do the laughing tiger posture. It might be very useful while we were going home through the dark forest. Next day we were told that there was a Bengal tiger nearby. But tiger is no as scary as animals from Namaste cafe... Tonight we were served two deep fried cockroaches mixed with fries... Oh deer, and Pilanita promised herself not to eat meet for a while.

11-11-09 to 17-11-09 - Rishikesh

We were happy to see the sitar concert. The sitar music impressed not only Pilanita but The Beatles too, who came here in 70' to learn how to play sitar, how to meditate and smoke charas.

11-11-09 to 17-11-09 - Rishikesh

Pilanita was lucky again. We went with the flow and arrived to Rishikesh and found out that there was a big yoga festival. That was a great opportunity to stretch our spine and to do best to touch our toes with legs straighten in knees:) this picture shows what Pilanita can do after weeks of training and not shaving her legs:) the whole in the sock is the special point to press to open the chakra!

10-11-2009 - Haridwar...

... and the scariest thing that took place in Haridwar... three innocent looking women pull their didi grandmother into cold but holy water of Ganga River... they wanted to drawn her but superPilanita came quickly to rescue her... how cruel was that!

10-11-2009 - Haridwar

Women with red sari that was let to dry.. later on she used the sari as a bullfighters fatal weapon: 'a capote' teasing the holy cow (actually it was a bull) against poor Pilanita and ...OMG!! he attacked her and guess what saved her life? the money belt with passport that protects her stomach from bull's horn...

10-11-2009 - Haridwar

Ladies and gentleman!!! Welcome to the Pilanitas show. Today we are in Haridwar and you, my dearest public, are going to be witness of the scary things and dangerous activities.. the dark side of the city in a daylight!
Men on electrical wire.. they keep the balance holding the dry stick(that also, as far as we remember isolate from the electricity shock and monkeys).

9-11-2009 Golden Temple, Amritsar

Pilanita is doing well eating with hr hands in Golden Temple. The food served from the bucket with hand, yummy:) but it was the best rice we had ever tried. and nobody was allowed to spit on the floor (because it was in the holy temple).

9-11-2009 Amritsar

The view of Golden Temple of Sikkhs. Really beautiful, peaceful and calming place in the middle of noisy Amritsar.

7-11-2009- Attari Border

Pilanita has joined the dancing group of women proud of being daughters of Hindustan in Attari border show.

Attari- India- Pakistan border

Anita got excited seeing the way Indian people manifest their national proud and run with them in the race with flag show:) I'm sure that picture reminds you Good bye Lenin movie (for the Western European followers of the blog) or the pictures from elementary book about the communist women workers and women tractorists motifs (for Eastern European followers). But don't worry Anita did not turn left-winged yet.