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Bestfriends contributing their expeiences of overseas
travel is enclosed

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Manojit along with son Rajib visited Cyprusand Nicosia in March 2007; shares his spine chilling experience :
 
Part 1
 
"As we were flying above the snow covered Alps little did I know what's waiting for us in Cyprus!
 
About a month back I had a phone call from my son Rajib--" Baba I'm off for a week in March - do you fancy going some where ? "
I was almost tearful with joy and quickly started exploring the net------
Here we are -- Holiday for 2 in Paphos - in Cyprus looks good for a week.-- bit of everything  weather , nice blue water of eastern Mediterranean, Greko-Roman history
Absolutely fantastic - let's go---
 
We flew out of Manchester  on a sunday  morning of 11th march - manju gave us lift to the airport and we arrived in paphos in 4 hours and collected our Hired car form the airport.
 
I was glad Rajib offered to drive as I was feeling bit tired and an unknown car in an unknown country tends to be bit stressful in my advancing years .
reached our hotel in about 1 hour even after loosing our way and having to seek help from the locals.
A huge  meal with Greek Meze was exactly what we needed to satisfy our large appetite. By the way Meze is a greek meal with lots of meat and fish varieties-they keep on bringing them to your table until you are fed up and can't look at any more food .
 
Alexander the great made PAPHOS  the capital of Cyprus and it remained as capital until it was transferred to Lefcosia ( Greek name for Nicosia)
But the history starts much before that. Legend has it that that Greek goddess of love -Aphrodite was born here - She came out of the beautiful blue water of Mediterranean . Paphos was the Mythical daughter of Aphrodite and Pygmalion.
Archaeologists found the relics of stone age dating back to 10,000 BC .
 
next 2 days were spend with lots of visits to the excavated ruins , tombs of the kings,, Birthplace and temple of Aphrodite.
Small request to those of you who are art minded- please look at the finest example of classical painting by Sandro Botticelli on the Birth of Venus( Roman name for Aphrodite). I'm sure you can tap into the Google for this.
 
As we explored the large part of the Island( thanks to rajib for driving 1200 km in 7 days) and enjoyed the sunny weather we never realised what was in store for us on the top of Troodos mountain!
 
We were already late and hurriedly picked up a free map from the hotel reception and headed toward Troodos mountain on a beautiful sunny morning . On the way we stopped at the little village called Kouklia where we saw temple of Aphrodite and ancient remains of 12th century BC. Pilgrims came from most of the ancient world till 3rd-4th century AD.
 
Zig zag narrow  road to the top of mountain took us about 3 hours . It was bitterly cold and there was a hint of snow in the air . An welcome break at a cypriot restaurant was exactly what we needed. Hot cup of Cha and Kebab rolls with lots of salads were highly refreshing
 
As we left the restaurant - to our horror we found it was snowing!!
 
However we could not go back without a visit to the Kykkos monastery -the richest and most important monastery on the island founded in 1094 by a hermit. Every day the rich and famous leave their offering of expensive jewellery here . Fortunately there were no long queues of summer when you could be waiting for hours.
We took photos( I will post them soon to you)in abundance before we read our guidebooks saying photographing not permitted and if you are caught you will be frog marched to the exit!
 
My god it's heavily snowing now and our car was covered in snow. 4 o'clock in the afternoon but it seemed lot darker and we headed hurriedly towards Paphos. After driving for 20 minutes we realised we have been driving in the wrong direction through the confusing snow covered mountainous road.
 
where is that map we picked up from the hotel ? Thank goodness it's in the back of the car. I think we are alright for petrol but we might have to stop at a filling station.
We stopped at a roadside Kiosk and the girl told us we were on a wrong road and we can either go on a longer way and may get a filling station or take the shorter way and reach paphos without any petrol station on our way. We decided to take the shorter way.
 
Everything was white and road markings were invisible with very poor visibility due to heavy snowing . We could see the steep mountain ridge on one side and deep valley on the other side. Speed have to be very slow as there is danger of skidding and going tumbling down the mountain with the car and no chance of survival for both of us.
 
This is where  I began to appreciate the youth of today with no fear in their heart and I respect them for that. Rajib showed all his skills driving down the mountain at a speed of 20km /hour with extreme caution . warning light came on about our impending empty petrol tank!!. He was often driving in neutral to save the petrol which had to be done - - although you can easily loose control of the car doing that . Rajib assured me he has his mobile phone and the emergency recue number . What he didn't tell me was that the phone was almost running out of Battery!!
 
Next 2 hours we played with death in the most harrowing weather in an unknown territory . I remembered a few years back Rajib saved me when I drowned in the Red Sea and here we are again far away from sea on the top of Troodos mountain ( A skiing resort - as we gathered later on).
There was no car , nobody around and the silence of mountain and darkness after sunset created the perfect setting for a great adventure story. But that was not what we had in our mind at that moment. My throat was absolutely perched dry and i took a big helping from the bottle of mineral water which we had in the car.
 
My thoughts were engulfed with all sorts of possibilities. if we ran out of petrol we will probably freeze to death. So it would be better to walk to find a house or some bed and breakfast place .But there were nobody for miles in the middle of cedar valley 
 We could always phone the rescue service but probably they can only come with the helicopter as the roads are so bad .
We could even stop and wait for the snowing to stop but we would probably need a shovel to clear the car of huge pile of snow.
 
I kept the thoughts to myself and decided to help Rajib  navigating  with the hopelessly inadequate map which  I held in my hand. Prayers always come handy . It at least makes you calm . so i remembered almost all the gods and goddesses under the sun.
 
After 2 hours we reached Pano panagia - a mountain village and and we were told petrol station is not far away . We were still 20 Km  from Paphos. We took a big sigh of relief . may be my prayer -- don't be silly --it was Rajib's skill once again which saved us
 
Late in the evening we were sitting in our hotel with a enormous amount of Italian pasta and bottle of wine and laughed our heads off sharing our mutual feeling at the moment of crisis.
Three more days passed with many more trips including one to Nicosia and the Turkish side of cyprus. but while driving up and down the island we always looked at the Troodos mountain with respect . The top always covered with clouds hiding the mystery of Kykkos monastery."
 
Part 2
 
We were standing at the " DEAD ZONE"-- should we go any further ?
 
Night before Rajib and me debated for a long time whether we should drive 168 km to Nicosia or not. How could you leave Cyprus without visiting one of the most interesting often discussed conflict torn historical city in the world. Turks and Greeks live side by side separated by stretches of wall and barbed wire like that of old Berlin.
 
Motorway from Paphos to Nicosia stretches from west to east of cyprus- an island lying on the blue water of eastern Mediterranean looks almost like a crocodile . it is an interesting part of the world surrounded by turkey, syria ,israel, Egypt and the Arab world. This is the region where there has been lot of conflicts between Greeks and Romans ,Muslims and christians , venetians and Turks , Greeks and Turks, British and ottomans  empire. No wonder you are surrounded by interesting relics from all ages.
 
Driving up the motorway Rajib was still thinking about our escape yesterday from Troodos mountains. In the distance we could still see the cloud covered mountain range .
 
We arrived in Nicosia ( Lefcosia - greek Lefkosha- Turkish) quite early and saw the first sight of the venetian wall surrounding the city protecting against the invading turks . But after the attack of 1974 by turks , there came the barbed wire.
 
Cyprus museum was amazing place for the next 2 hours - where we brushed up our history from stone age to the present day. unfortunately no photographs were allowed
 
A quick bite at the home made sandwiches and cold drinks were enough to fill up our stomach- while sitting in a lovely Park in the city. Walk along the river which flows across the green line  dividing the two parts of the city.
Interestingly only place where these two parts of the city meet is the underground sewerage !!
 
We visited the house Hadjigeorgakis Kornesion - a very rich Turkish who negotiated the peace between Turkish Sultan and Cypriot archbishop in the early 19th century-then Archbishop palace where we saw some of the famous painting in the world. Turks invaded and converted some of the beautiful churches to Mosque ( does it remind you of Ajodhya ?)
 
There was a strange feeling as we stood at the dividing line and looked at the DEAD ZONE - this is a Buffer zone to keep the two sides apart mostly made of derelict houses. We both wanted to visit the Turkish side but would we be allowed as we had no Visa for turkish side !!
 
We approached the security guard- seemed like a friendly chap .
 
" can we cross to the other side- we have British passport"
" ofcouse sir, we will give you permit for 24 hours "- we muttered 1 hour would be enough
 
Now we walked across the DEAD ZONE
 
Turkish military personal with Rifle in their hand stopped us  - when we expressed our wish
 
without any word his hand gesture directed us to the border post for Visa
 
They took our passport and examined them back to front , inside out and after a long pause looked at us and handed over a form to fill up and issued a visa
 
Walking round the Turkish part was strange . There was no english sign - either arabic or turkish .road name were different - so the Ledra street changed it's name to Ataturk street and so on.
 
People sitting in the big Ataturk square sat smoking and drinking Turkish coffee. It's strange to see so many people smoking on the street which we didn't see on the other side. A small boy aged about 5/6 came begging and when we didn't give any money( we didn't have any turkish money) , he gave us a nasty look and nudged us with all his might!!
 
After spending an hour in the turkish side were convinced that economically they were very much deprived - food was almost half price, clothes were almost 1/3rd and furniture were very cheap.
 
However  turkish students with lots of money from parents come to the greek parts to study in the university and drive around in expensive cars. You could recognise them by their number plate beginning with ZZ. They are popularly called Zezzets - rich spoilt brats!!
 
As we drove back to Paphos , I thought about the people of this world - Can you change them by drawing a line across the map? 
 
Goodnight Lefcosia. Goodnight Lefkosha- may you unite soon!
 

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Kykkos Monastery

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Frescos Kykkos Monastery

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Snow bound on Toorodos

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Birthplace of Aphrodite

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King's Tomb Paphos

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Roman Hotel in Paphos

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Ruins of Christian Basilica

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Snow covered Alps

Manojit visited Australia via Singapore in May/June 2005. E-mails

sent by him in that period is reproduced below.

 

27.5.2005

Hi folks,

I am mailing you from internet port in Singapore airport on our way to Brisbane. It is an amazing airport and one of the best I am told. We stopped over for a day in singapore. We went to night Safari last night. The tram ride through jungle was fascinating. It was nice to see animals enjoying their night life. There were species from every country. They even had rain forest from Latin America. We saw the giant ant-eater for the first time. Tigers and lions were quite lively. This was followed by an animal show. It was good to see otters are involved in putting rubbishes in recycling bins of different colours. Orchard road shopping centre was the main attraction for Manju. I didn't know she could bargain that much. At the speed of lightening she reduced the cost of camera by about 30%. Food was mostly Chinese ( we love Chinese food ) but the sweet dishes were awful. So this morning we decided to have good old English breakfast. We are prepared to board in 15 minutes for another seven hour

flight to Brisbane where Rajib would be waiting for us at the airport. I will

write you again from Australia. Best wishes to you all.

Manojit

 

28.5.2005

Hi folks,

 

Finally arrived in Australia and met by Rajib at the Airprt. Thanks

goodness he hasn't changed at all! To Manju's relief he hasn't lost any

more hair and his bald patch remains the same. Brisbane airport is

a busy place. My body clock is totally confused and does'nt know when

to sleep or when to eat. Even after large helping of Indonesian lunch

on the plane I was feeling hungry again. So we dumped our bags in

the hotel and went out for a stroll. Our room on the thirteenth floor

with a panaramic view of Brisbane ( thanks to Rajib ). Skyline of Brisbane

is absolutely amazing. Dinner at a Greek restaurent with greek metze,

salads and large amount of sea fish along with Australian red wine

went down very well. Then we joined in the Greek dancing. Thanks

goodness we still managed to remember steps from our preveous

Greek holiday. Manju and Puja were too lazy or jet lagged so it was

boys only. I went to bed at about 2 o'clock in the morning after

watching an old Hindi film called Zachm ( very sad indeed ). I am

surprised that even in Australia they show hindi movie in national

channel! I am at the internet cafe after walking the streets whole

morning and then boat trip and BarbeQ lunch by the side of Brisbane

river. We went to the old town hall and saw the art work of contemporary

artists. This was a guided tour ( thank goodness ). Some of the modern

art was beyond me. Even in winter temperature in the afternoon has

reached 24 degrees celsius. We came through botanical garden on the

way to the boat. Here last night we saw possums in the darkness. They

are mainly noctural. Strangely though we could not see single one

today. Today is local market day and met a gentleman playing a strange

instrument called 'didgry doo' which sounded similar to the one played

by the Tibetan monks. It is 3 o'clock in the afternoon and 9 am in London

and 1.30 pm in India.

Best wishes to you all.

Manojit

 

29.5.2005

Hi folks,

This is the third mail from Australia and we have now seemed to have

now got over the jet lag so have stopped counting back the time in

USA, UK, India etc. Here in our Oz time seem to fly by very easily - so

much to do and even when there is nothing else there is rock concert

in the park in front of us. Yesterday after a trip to Brisbane town and

the boat ride and botanical garden Rajib arranged a gala dinner at

Coot-Tha-Summit restaurent on top of the hill overlooking Brisbane.

What a fantastic night scene of Brisbane! Of course price matched to

compensate for the scenery. Restaurent was excellent although a bit

expensive. On the way to retaurent we passed by Gabba the famous cricket ground which was flood lit as there was a Aussie football

( a mixture of rugby and football ) going on. Rajib seems to have got

used to picking up lively conversation with taxi drivers. At the end of dinner we felt slightly sad as the he would leave for UK for an interview

today. So this morning he packed his bag and headed for the airport.

However he will be back in five days to join us for the rest of the holiday.

Today was gala day for Puja as she hugged all the animals as she wished

for - Koala bear, Kangaroo, Wallabee, pigs etc. you might have guessed

- yes we went to Lone Pine animal sanctuary. This is about an hour boat

ride from Brisbane. By the way I am sure you know Koalas are not bear

but marsupials, very lovable creature who get their nutrition by chewing

Eucaliptus leaves - a low calory energy food for 4 hours a day and then sleep for twenty hours. ( would suit me nicely! ) Kangaroos were lively and they fed from our hands. Manju was contended with taking photos.

( I will post some photos on mails in future on our return back to UK )

Tomorrow we will be flying to Alice Springs and after another two days

to Ayer' rock and some of you may remember the case of 'Dingo baby'.

Australia's population is only 20 million ( population of London!) and

the vast land of this continent is empty. Alice Spring is in the desert

area where you don't see anybody for miles. You dare not drive as the

nearest petrol station may be hundred miles away. People have died

attempting to do such adventure. Thanks goodness we are flying. So

much today. I read all your interesting mails. Keep sending interesting

mails. best wishes to you all.

Manojit

 

4.6.2005

Hi folks,

It took five hours and a change of flight at Adelaide to reach Alice Springs from Brisbane. We are now on the second leg of our holiday. Our flight was with Virgin Blue - this man Richard Branstin does not have any boundaries. so this is Northern territory and Alice Spring is the centre point of Australia - like the Bull's eye on the dart board. This is the desert

territory. Colour of soil reminded me of clay colour of French Open tennis championship - absolutely stunning red. There is no spring in Alice but if you care to dig the soli there is plenty of water - amazing! Although desert -it is full of trees and srrubs which are very prickly. They never seem to die and can live for hundreds of years. In fact aborigines selectively burn them in patches to stimulate germination and also for new growths. We

stayed for a night in Alice and took the coach to Uluro ( Ayer's rock )

444 km through the red desert. On the way we stopped at camel farm and

had our brunch. Here we met a very friendly dingo and stroked and cuddled him, Manju was happy to watch. Next stop was Mount Kenyon-table top mountain. The top is actually like a huge table and few years back a couple decided to get married there ( some crazy people! ). On the way we saw many wild camels. Do you know there are more camels in Australia than in middle east - 700,000 wild ones. In fact some of them are

exported to middle east. They are healthier than the middle east varieties as there is no shortage of food here. They were introduced by Afgans in 1920's when they arrived with the camels. Subsequently Afgans took the job of train driving and let the animals loose in the wild. The railway in the North is still called Ghan rail ( after Afgan ). The railway does not run anymore as people fly here all the time. Flying is cheap and there are lot of companies competing with each other. We reached Uluro - a fascinating sight. It is aworld heritage centre and a land of Aborigines. Aborigines originated from Asia- some say Sri Lanka when the land mass was joined together. They settled here 60,000 years back and quite rightly they have always felt Australia belongs to them. White people came here only 200 years back as a result of voyage of Captain Cook an Englishman.

Then the first convicts came in 1788 and the aborigines were driven out of

South and Sydney, their women were taken away and denied all rights.

Thanks gooness in 1965 their MP fought as well as lot of whites and they have now got equal rights and and full power and NT has been given to them. Ayer's rock is sacred place and aborigines don't like people to climb

it - it's supposed to be bad luck and brings curse to the family. Lot of people have died attempting to climb it. We took an aboriginal guide with us called Christine and she had a young Australian interpreter. She took us to the caves in the rocks and showed the paintings and told their custom and beliefs. Aboriginals have Dreamtime ( means their beliefs

and laws ). They find the link between earth, animals, plants and humans.

They don't go to doctors but pick the herbs from trees. Christine took us to herbal palnts and plucked the seeds and grinded them on a stone and

applied the paste on my palm - exactly like Iodine but a bit sticky. This

would seal the wound and also act as antiseptic - marvellous idea. We even had lovely sweet tasting fruits of the trees - a bit like pulm, absolutely black in colour. Evening followed and sunset created an

amazimg ambience and rock changed its colour to an wonderful bright

red - a sight I will never forget. I stood there and captured the moment

in my digital camera ( I will send them to you in due course ). Next day

we went to King's canyon - reminded me of our previous holiday in Grand Canyon a few years back except with less crowds and more nature. Australia is full of lovely birds and trees and wonderful beaches. You wake up in the morning with hundreds of birds chirping away - a truely amazing experience. We came back quite late and felt quite hungry and decided to go for open air barbeQ. Here you have to buy the meat and there are about thirty open air grills where you cook and then salads are

free along with fruits in generous helping at a reasonable prices. Choices

of meat were lamb, Chicken, Kangaroo, beef, baramundi fish, prawn and crocodile. We were not very adventurous and decided to stick to fish and chicken. As the night fell under the open sky with full of stars we ate our

dinner with lovely music from the aboriginals who played Didgeri doo and told about the stars and stories of their origin; a truely memorable night.

Next day we caught flight back to Melbourne and to Brisbane and by car to Sunshine coast at Noosa heads for the third leg of our holiday. Good news is Rajib has just come back and has got the job in UK starting in August. So much for today. I will write to you again in few days.

Best wishes.

Manojit

 

12.6.2005

Hi folks

Peter burnett our kiwi driver was waiting to take us to noosa from the brisbane airport. His executive crysler certainly suited puja who was strapped up on the 3rd row of the seats with headphone and a a latest hollywood blockbuster video.we talked about his homeland new zealand . Married to an aussie with 3 kids he feels more at home in oz now. He has a great love for India but they are so busy with travel buissness that he has no time for holiday now .We reched in Noosa at 11.30 pm and went to bed. As the morning broke with the sound of singing birds we saw the wonderful view from our penthouse sitting room overlooking the bay of Noosa river with boats . as we came out on the varandah the colourful birds were in front of us . As we wre enjoying the morning cup of tea we heard the doorbell go. Guess who was it- yes you are right, it was Rajib back from UK.We celebrated his success with a glass of champagne.Then a stroll on the sandy beach of Sunshine coast . Rajib and Puja were back to their childhood days throwing sand at each other.Would you believe it started to rain on sunshine coast. 'What have you done to our sushine coast dad' Rajib asked! UK weather seemed to follow us. Fortunately it was short lasting. Rajib drove us to The national park -wonderful combination of colour. Bluish  haze from eucalyptus leaves,bluish green sea,golden colour wheatfield and the red and yellow sand of the desert.For the firsttime we saw a Koala in the wild.We were feeling quite hungry so the meal at a resturant with live music and plenty of seafood including Rajib's octopus meal was enough to fill our stomach.Have you heard of crocodile man ? Steve Irwin- is famous through his TV programmes with him catching live venomous snakes and crocodiles. We visited his famous Australian zoo where animals and humans interact so well. Lively tigers were mingling with their fearless carers .Next day we travelled to Moreton island from the Gold Coast. A paradise of an island( I have sent a photo of manju and Puja running on the  beach of that island).Clean white sand , green palm trees , some exotic colourful birds and then the dolphins who headed to the shore in the evening . Manju Rajib and Puja joined the party who fed the dolphin with fishes. Late at night we went to bed excited with the thought that it's Sydney tomorrow. We flew to Sydney by Quantus airlines and then then 20 mins by taxi to our hotel Boulevard. Our rooms were on the 15th floor overlooking the harbour bridge and the famous opera house. Story has it that the architect was peeling an orange and looking at the arrangement of the peels he got the idea of sidney opera house. Whatever it is, this is the fantastic photo site and we took plenty ( I will sent some to you)We took the ferry to Darling harbour with exotic shops to please Manju and wide choice of resturants Mexican, Thai,korean,Chinese, Japanese,Indian,Greek,Italian , Indodeian ........We decided for thigh ( I meant food from Thailand) served by the most elegant looking waitresses. Varieties of soups, saute chicken,prawn rolls, thai jungle curry , prawn sweet and sour and chicken in garlic and pepper . All this accompnied by jasmine steamed rice and ofcourse the wonderful soft music from Thailand was enough to satisfy our appetite and the relax the tired bodies.Trip to Sydney is never complete without a visit to the famous Bondi beach. I wish I could do windsurfing instead of internet surfing! Young boys and girls were riding the waves of the wonderful blue waves of pacific.I have been told that it's fashionable to eat take away food sitting on the beach- an Aussie custom. So we followed them with fried baramundi fish and chips( don't count calories on holidays) except Puja( health conscious) decided to stick to her fruit salad!Transport in sidney is very efficient. They have ferry stations and ferries running every minute, Monorail through city,underground metro, Buses and taxi with very reasonable fare. Shops at the Queen victoria shopping arcade are out of this world. The buiding itself is an work of art with two huge clocks which chimes every half an hour and out comes the historic scenes from the 1000 years of royal family of england. Days of Sydney passed  very quickly with lots of other highlights and soon we were ready for Melbourne - a city more like London than any other Aussie city. On the 17th day of our holiday we boarded the plane for Melbourne -this time with virgin blue airlines. Melbourne is the capital of Victoria state and is furthest to the south except Tasmania which is an island off the coast of melbourne. South of this is Antartic and we certainly felt the cold here . Out came our wollies and coat and umbrella to protect from the occational winter shower. A long drive of 45 mins to our Hotel Duxton in the city centre was smooth with very wide roads nd orderly traffic. Hotel Duxton was the headqurter of the commercial travellers in the 19th century. Travelling salesman from all over the world would stay in the victorian periods for 5 shillings for the room and the breakfast. For that bit of history the price has been overflated these days. Rooms were small and there were no glorious viewslike other places. Ciy was full of attractions from MCG ( melbourne cricket ground -oldest in the world), Australian tennis championship court, botanical garden and so on. People of Melbourne like to dress up unlike other cities where casual dress is the norm. Good resturants would expect you to get dressed in proper dress. So we tried our best with our meager resources. Few things about Australia might interest you. Government here is trying to encourage people to produce more children. They are happy that birth rate has just gone up to 1.77. They have even incraesed the child benefit from 3000 to 4000 dollar per child from this year( I think they should tske some lessons fron Indians). Austarlians love their sport. As soon as they get up in the morning they rush to golf course,then starts jogging back to home,after work go to play tennis and finish off with a swim . A nation of true sports lovers. In addition rugby and cricket are played constantly on the sports channels. As we were flying back from melbourne to the Mckay to see the great barrier reef for the final phase of our holiday ,we saw the massive Mcdonald range of mountains which at one time several thousands of years back was even higher than Himalayas . through ages they have eroded and nowhere near the top mountains of the world.We live in the everchanging world where at time Australia, India ,Africa and south America was joined up together before the land masses moved and I've been told Australia is now moving slowly towards Asia! So much today I'll send my final report next week at the end of our holiday.

Best wishes

Manojit

 

18.6.2005

Dear bestfriends

Now on the way back we are in transit in Singapore. Painful to think we will be flying over India without touching our friends . Oasis transit lounge is amazing . Besides the free internet, Satellite TV there is also a free massaging chairs which you can enjoy with a electrical control . I tried it for 15 mins and got rid of the aches and pain but then it started tickling me at the most unwanted parts -and I won't tell you my feelings!! By the way thanks for all your kind emails complimenting my hair and slimness!! Do you really mean it? What's wrong with you chaps ? why don't you get your eyes tested ? Samir please don't get disheartened, wait till Rajib's marriage when I'll lose the remaining bits from my head . Sarbani thanks for Father's day message . Your emails giving weekend activities are interesting . I hope rest of the gang will follow suit. Rita , thanks for your mails and your appreciation of the holiday report . Prodyot your " Admiral Chatterjee " was a classic . Do share with us such wonderful anecdotes.I'll think of doing a abridged version of  Australian holiday with different photos for the website. Partha I missed the comments on Rabri and jilebi but whatever it is I'm glad you have come alive again. Amal, where were you hiding so long? This is a snail syndrome ( hiding in the shell ) Your comments about my footballing days reminds me lot of funny moments on the football pitch. Barin stood  in the goal and certainly made sure his divings were perfect to impress our Girlfriends !! As a centre back I certainly used more power than skill and made sure I got the man if not the ball. Talking about power my only prize on school field was Tug of war !! What about you Amal ? Dileep your communication skill is beyond belief, but I was interested to find out your comment about " Admiral Chatterjee ". Thanks for your encouraging mails. Dipten - no doubt you are the Joke master . Thank God somebody is there for making us laugh from time to time. But why not few lines from Shikha as well ? Does anybody have any news of Swapna ? If you are reading this mail please communicate with us Swapna , even if it is by writing an acknowledgement. Friends it is lovely to read your mails -so keep churning them out . Keep writing ,even if it's lot of rubbish like mine .We have flown for 9 hours from Austarlia and already travelled more than 4000 miles and now we will be boarding again for a flight back to UK ( another 7000 miles and for 14 hours ).Then we need a lomg rest to recover from our holiday.

Good bye for now.

Best wishes

Manojit

 
 

 

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Ayer's Rock

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Puja and Koala

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Manju at Sydney

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Manojit at Bondi beach

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Refreshed Rajib at Whitehaven

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