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Sunday 12th December - Palole
By Claire
Thursday, 16th December 2004 08:01

We watched the sun set this evening. It was rather nice but not a spectacular one as it was over too quickly for that. I swam in the sea, too, which was warm and very wavey. I eventually let the sea push me to shore. Other than that, today was very much like any other we've had recently. We did have roast chicken for supper, though, with roast potatoes, stuffing and gravy, and a bottle of wine. Mikey made me drink the wine. He forced me to, and it had nothing to do with being a very nice chardonnay at all. Honest.

So, in honour of only having a week to go, here's another list of things I forgot to mention as I was writing my diaries until it was too late. Only little things, and in no particular order:

  • In China people were selling small animals in cages on the pavement. I was expecially intrigued by the tiny balls of water containing a live goldfish on a keyring chain.
  • The Cameron Highlands, in Malaysia, was full of gorgeous ancient Land Rovers. They had all been painted and repainted a couple of dozen times and everywhere the paint was chipped revealed more layers of colour. They were quite cool..
  • Marysol, our Inca Trail guide told us that she'd heard that some people, in Lima, had dogs as pets that they actually put on a lead and took for walks.
  • In Malaysia, all along the main roads were signs that had an umbrella and some rain on the left and a motorbike on the right, and they almost all pointed to bridges. It took me three bus trips to work out that they were indicating rain shelters for motorcyclists.
  • So far this year I have climbed the Malverns and the Andes and spent time in the Himalayas. I think the walk along the whole of the Malverns with Rupert was the most enjoyable though.
  • On the long taxi ride to Agra, we passed a lot of big lorries that had been customised in the same way. They had no trailers, no cabin and no doors, just a seat or bale of hay for the driver, sometimes one for the passenger, and a steering wheel. Nothing else at all, not even a windscreen.
  • On our first night in Hong Kong we went to Kowloon to see the fireworks. Everywhere we went there were groups of women of all ages sitting on newspaper on the pavement with big picnics playing cards. They were on walls and pavements and railway stations and some were even in the road. Very odd. We didn't see it again after that.
  • I met a real-life kabaddi player in the desert but he was high on opium and just swayed to himself so I couldn't talk to him about it.
  • In Jaisalmer there was a public urinal with a big sign outside it saying, "This facility is clean, please use it." There was a man weeing on the sign.



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