We write this latest update whilst sitting at a beach-side hotel restaurant in Lombok, a far cry from the craziness of Mumbai where we left you last.
Our last day in Mumbai, we were able to go into the Mumbai slums, where Slumdog Millionaire was filmed, and had a private tour of the inner workings of slum life. One things we were suprised to learn was that there are a lot of white collar workers in the slums, who earn more than enough to live in their own properties but choose slum life as this is what they are used to and where they were brought up.
Being invited into various "houses" we were able to see how proud the people are who live here and despite all likelihood, the houses are absolutely spotless and you can see they are cleaned every day. All children are sent to school in their adorable school uniforms.
We were also invited into the various factories, where they make wholesale clothing - dresses, shirts, jeans - suitcases and even went to a leather tannery. Next time you use Johnson & Johnson, please be aware that the factory it was made in was probably in the Mumbai slums! On the whole, the main shock was that the slums just aren't as bad as they are played up to be in the movie. However, Sally did manage to tread on a dead rat on the street and is now so hardened to Indian life that she didn't even let out a scream!
In fact, one man was very unhappy to see us there in the slums and told us to get out... the slum dwellers were not at all happy with the movie and thought it painted slum life in a very bad light. I hope he would have realised we weren't there to make any judgement or laugh at them, but in fact just gain an understanding of the way life was for them.
What I have yet to mention is the day earlier, we had been out walking in Mumbai and inadvertently walked into another slum. Without a guide or a clue where we were going, it was a little more scary than the following day, especially when we accidently walked through the public toilet area... which was just an area of pavement by the coast!
All the while, of course, we had intermittent monsoons.
Anyway, we now had to say goodbye to India after five and a half weeks. We both totally agreed with our thoughts on India and the time we have had there. It was definitely time to leave, but we both walked away feeling that we had definitely gained something by going to India, both culturally and by learning how to be travellers... if you can travel in India you can travel pretty much anywhere!
So, thoughts on India are as follows...
1) if there is not a cow eating rubbish, you are not in India
2) if there is no room to fit someone in the car, squeeze three more in and then hang people out the window
3) there is absolutely nothing wrong with wearing the same clothes 5 days in a row
4) dirty feet are an absolute given
5) you can try all you like to eat the right food and still end up with Delhi Belly from the showers
6) Indians on the whole are a hugely spiritual people, who manage to integrate their religeon into daily lives with ease
7) of the 33million Hindi gods, our favourite is Brama (the creator) followed closely by Ganesha (elephant) mostly because this is the one we can remember
8) there is no point walking down the pavement when a perfectly good road will do - and get you away from the hundreds of street hawkers
9) the true value of anything is a quarter of the price the sellers quote
10) four people can easily fit onto one motorbike, with room to spare for a baby
The next leg of our trip was a short flight to Singapore, quite the opposite of India in almost every respect. It was also our first stay in a hostel and dorm room... at the Inn-Crowd. And ironically, this was in Little India, the Indian part of Singapore. Singaporeans are mostly of either Indian, Chinese, Malay or ex-pat descent, and each culture has their own part of the city.
12 people in each mixed dorm room and 7 dorms led, finally, to a lot of other travellers for us to meet. It was very useful to hear other travellers stories about where they have been and what they have got up to - especially as everyone we met was on a reverse trip to us and were going where we have been and have been where we are going! It is also good to know that we are not the first, and certainly won't be the last to get ripped off or fall for any number of scams that locals pull on travellers!
The hostel puts on a free scooter tour of Singapore a couple of times a week so we signed up for our only full day so we could see the city properly. From 10.30am to 4.30pm we were out and about sampling the delights of Singapore, most notably a stop off a Raffles Hotel for a Singapore Sling cocktail each where they were created. Needless to say, our control of the scooter was significantly worse than before we had them to drink. Our tour showed us everything there was to see in a single day which was fortunate as our next flight took us out of there the very next day.
That evening, we went to Clarke Quay, the liveliest part of Singapore, where they have beautiful restaurants and interesting bars with all sorts of themes. The oddest we came across was a bar called Clinic, where the people who visit the bar sit in wheelchairs, have their drinks from a drip bag and take shots from a syringe. I am tempted to bring this idea back to London...
The evening brought an electronic kite display which was practice for the youth olympic opening later this summer.
The difficult thing to get used to after leaving India was the cleanliness... where it was perfectly acceptable, in fact expected, to throw your rubish on the floor in India (there are no bins, only piles of rubbish everywhere), in Singapore there is a huge fine for any level of littering!
So... we left Singapore with a new and hugely important purchase... the notepad that Kate bought that we are using with wifi to update this blog now! No more stuffy internet cafe's, beachside only from now on!
Pur next flight brought us to Bali, but first a two hour queue to get through immigration and buy our visas. Fortunately, we were meeting Felipe back in Bali as he was able to secure us a fabulous deal in a hotel right on the beach with a beautiful pool and stunning gardens, and all for very cheap too. Otherwise a 2am stroll around the Indonesian equivalent to Magaluf would have been on the cards.
We chose to stay in Kuta, which is well known as the party place of Bali and it was full of Australian surfers who were having their winter break from school or university, along with a good mix of travellers too. We found a lot of people who were only supposed to be passing through and ended up staying a couple of months or more. Kuta is great for surfing, partying and spending too much money so we chose only to spend 5 days there, as what we have really been in need of is a relaxing time with beautiful scenery and a chance to get over the craziness of India.
So that is what brought us here to Lombok... an hours fast boat to the next island and then a short taxi ride to the villiage of Sengiggi, an absolutely beautful stretch of beach, where we are staying in a lovely beach hut and will soon be taking advantage of a few days sunshine and hopefully, finally, getting a tan! While this is being written, Kate is having a massage and Sally is getting a henna... all in all we are very happy girls!
We are making sure to take our malaria medication, and trying hard as we can to avoid the mosquitos as there has been a huge outbreak of dengue fever amongst travellers and there is no way to prevent it!
Tomorrow we are renting scooters for 24 hours so we will be able to see Lombok in all it's beauty... two hours until sunset now...
Until next time xxx
Monday 19 July 2010
Monday 12 July 2010
Delhi, Kerala, Goa, Mumbai and some rediculous journeys in between...
Hi all...
We last left you whilst we were in Varanasi waiting for our train back to Delhi. Since then, we have covered the entire length of India.
Delhi, being our fourth visit there was pretty unremarkable, except Sally was proposed to by the crazy hotel owner and has since been plagued by constant text messages. Don't worry mum and dad, the answer was (and remains) a firm no.
The next morning was an early one as we had a train to catch to Kerala, which is the Southern most state in India. We were slightly concerned by the fact it was our longest trip yet at about 30 hours, so we stocked up on crisps and cookies, said goodbye to Felipe and prepared for 2 days and a night on the train. However, turning up at the station, we discovered that actually this was a 42 hour train, so basically a mini break with 6 Indian men.
Kate made a new friend called Vivien, a 60 year old man with an alcohol problem (3 bottles of whiskey on the first day that we are aware of) who has now also been calling and texting daily. She got into trouble on the train as they were in the linen closet drinking whiskey and was accused of taking drugs... a quick bribe of 1000 rupees got her out of any trouble! She was warned by locals to get back to her bed fast ... they followed and then offered hashish and cigarettes to smoke out of the doors as the train was moving (answer was no).
We thought the best way to get through 42 hours of pretty much hell was to sleep as many hours as possible throughout the day. We both had the bottom bunks and both woke in the mornings to find our mini-break men sitting on our beds while we were sleeping... great!
So... we finally arrived in Kerala - we were originally planning on spending 5 days there, not realising we were going to lose a whole extra day on the train so had to re-think our plans and not travel too far from the station. The train took us to Ernakulum, Cochin - we arrived at the hugely convenient time of 5am. Backpacks went on and in the pouring rain, we started the walk to the MG Road, which was supposed to be the busiest place and the best for backpackers.
Maybe we will get used to the rain, maybe we will get used to carrying the backpacks... but its really difficult to find a cheap deal on a hotel in a good location when its pouring with rain at 5am and you are really desparate to find somewhere to sleep! So we settled on a decent but probably overpriced hotel and slept the day away.
Ernakulum has nothing to offer other than a few shops and a road called Jew Street, but we were able to make a plan for the next few days. Cochin is made up of a number of islands where you can hop on a boat between the islands for 2.5 rupees (67 to the pound). We found the ferry port and some much cheaper accomodation right by the port, so moved our luggage to the storage in the hotel and jumped on the ferry to Fort Cochin... and this is where we were so proud of ourselves... for two days, we lived out of small day packs with a 20 lt capacity. Seeing that we are now capable of living in the same outfits for 5 days straight, this actually wasn't too difficult!
Fort Cochin in a small island that you can easily walk around in a day. There is a lot to see in Fort Cochin, including a Dutch Palace which was actually built in the 1500s by the Portuguese to apologise for raiding a temple. It is the Dutch palace because the Dutch carried out the renovations. It was in this palace that we learned all the history about the Rajas, and the Maharajas.
Fort Cochin also has Chinese fishing nets and Sally jumped on board and helped with the fishing... not a huge catch unfortunately but it is a bad time of year for the fish apparently. In Fort Cochin, it is usual to buy your fish fresh from the fishermen and take them to the restaurants to have them cooked.
The other major thing we saw was the Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in the entire British Commonwealth, which was built in the 1500s when there used to be a huge Jewish community in Kerala. Now, there are only 7 Jews in Fort Cochin as they leave to move to Israel. We also broke into the Jewish cemetery (on the aptly named Jew Cemetery Road) to pay our respects. Unfortunately a lot of the graves had been destroyed, but the keepers of the synagogue have salvaged them and they were all kept in the grounds.
Our accommodation in Fort Cochin was... budget. Costing us about 2 pounds each a night we thought we had found somewhere pretty decent. Until, we were given a curfew of 11.30pm and water started leaking through the roof on top of Kate who was sick whilst the monsoon was pouring. A girl has to be pretty ill to just ignore the water, not move the bed, put a bucket underneath to catch the water or arrange for a new room. Fortunately Nurse Sally was on hand to fix everything!
Our nights were spent in a restaurant watching the football and drinking "special tea" (beer in a teapot as they don't have a license).
One great thing about Fort Cochin is the tuk tuk drivers will offer you a free ride anywhere as long as you agree to go into a shop and look around for 5 minutes, they get their commission and we get a free journey.
We then discovered that there was a 24 hour strike across the whole of India on the day that we were supposed to be leaving, so no taxis or tuk tuks would be running. So, our backpacks were now stored in a hotel an hours walk from the train station... we couldn't really stay there so had to negotiate getting our bags back the day before the strike (by paying them off with 100 rupees) and finding a hotel close to the station. Once again, it was pouring with rain, but we managed a much better deal after what felt like hours of hotels telling us they were fully booked as obviously all other travellers had the same idea!
So, the following day, we left the earily quiet Ernakulum and jumped on the train to Margao in the South of Goa. Having, as usual, done very little research on the best place to go in Goa, we decided we were just going to go to the nearest beach seeing as it was out of season, no travellers would be there anyway, and we would have a few days to recuperate from long train journeys that without exception make us both ill.
On the train, we met Jon and Giles, who without doubt turned our trip to Goa around... they told us they were going to Baga which is supposed to be the only place where tourists would be going and also the best night life. Of course this would cost us money... but you only go to Goa once right? (we really need to stop justifying spending money with that!)
So, we went to Baga, arriving at the slightly less annoying time of 6am and the four of us took a walk around the hotels (guess what, it was raining again) and tried to find a good deal. And when else, other than when you are travelling, do you meet someone one day and then agree to share a hotel room with them for a week following that?
Most of Goa disappeared in a haze of alcohol, sleeping and the Star Movies channel as believe it or not, the rain just kept on coming. We met loads of other holiday makers (still no long term travellers yet) from all over the world as every night we were in the same bars watching the football and then dancing the night away.
It is common for everyone in Goa to rent a bike or moped - I think we were the only group of people who didn't rent any - although a lift was always available from new found friends or friendly locals. One day, we did decide to rent mopeds... Sally didn't bother, Kate drove hers fine, Giles couldn't get the hang of it and Jon smashed his into the car of the person who rented him the bike! A 3000 rupee payoff got him off the hook, and we all left on foot after the manager took the other bikes back too. One day of sunshine burnt us terribly as everyone played football (Sally watching) and we swam in the sea. Which is apparently very dangerous, particularly at the spot of beach we were on... the current was REALLY strong and every time we got too far out the lifeguards would have to drive out into the sea to drag us back. But we are all strong swimmers and everyone was fine, if not a little pink when we returned.
Other bribes in Goa included Kate paying off an angry Indian when Jon jumped on someones bike whilst drunk and driving it into another car (1000 rupees) - Sally got together a search party of 12 people to look for them after it took half an hour for them to get 2 minutes down the road, and Sally paying off a policeman as she didn't have a license while driving someones bike (500 rupees). But we lived to tell the tale and have learned... stay away from bikes and linen closets and all will be fine!
Our last night was spent at a private pool party at our American friends hotel, before we had to be up and out early to catch our train to Mumbai.
Which is where we write this from today. Sally has been really ill since being in Goa... it is either the ice they put in the drinks or just too many drinks all together... feeling better now and hence able to write this!
Promise to write again sooner, as I am sure a lot of details have been forgotten in this update...
Expect to hear from us in Bali!
Much love
Sally and Katie xxx
We last left you whilst we were in Varanasi waiting for our train back to Delhi. Since then, we have covered the entire length of India.
Delhi, being our fourth visit there was pretty unremarkable, except Sally was proposed to by the crazy hotel owner and has since been plagued by constant text messages. Don't worry mum and dad, the answer was (and remains) a firm no.
The next morning was an early one as we had a train to catch to Kerala, which is the Southern most state in India. We were slightly concerned by the fact it was our longest trip yet at about 30 hours, so we stocked up on crisps and cookies, said goodbye to Felipe and prepared for 2 days and a night on the train. However, turning up at the station, we discovered that actually this was a 42 hour train, so basically a mini break with 6 Indian men.
Kate made a new friend called Vivien, a 60 year old man with an alcohol problem (3 bottles of whiskey on the first day that we are aware of) who has now also been calling and texting daily. She got into trouble on the train as they were in the linen closet drinking whiskey and was accused of taking drugs... a quick bribe of 1000 rupees got her out of any trouble! She was warned by locals to get back to her bed fast ... they followed and then offered hashish and cigarettes to smoke out of the doors as the train was moving (answer was no).
We thought the best way to get through 42 hours of pretty much hell was to sleep as many hours as possible throughout the day. We both had the bottom bunks and both woke in the mornings to find our mini-break men sitting on our beds while we were sleeping... great!
So... we finally arrived in Kerala - we were originally planning on spending 5 days there, not realising we were going to lose a whole extra day on the train so had to re-think our plans and not travel too far from the station. The train took us to Ernakulum, Cochin - we arrived at the hugely convenient time of 5am. Backpacks went on and in the pouring rain, we started the walk to the MG Road, which was supposed to be the busiest place and the best for backpackers.
Maybe we will get used to the rain, maybe we will get used to carrying the backpacks... but its really difficult to find a cheap deal on a hotel in a good location when its pouring with rain at 5am and you are really desparate to find somewhere to sleep! So we settled on a decent but probably overpriced hotel and slept the day away.
Ernakulum has nothing to offer other than a few shops and a road called Jew Street, but we were able to make a plan for the next few days. Cochin is made up of a number of islands where you can hop on a boat between the islands for 2.5 rupees (67 to the pound). We found the ferry port and some much cheaper accomodation right by the port, so moved our luggage to the storage in the hotel and jumped on the ferry to Fort Cochin... and this is where we were so proud of ourselves... for two days, we lived out of small day packs with a 20 lt capacity. Seeing that we are now capable of living in the same outfits for 5 days straight, this actually wasn't too difficult!
Fort Cochin in a small island that you can easily walk around in a day. There is a lot to see in Fort Cochin, including a Dutch Palace which was actually built in the 1500s by the Portuguese to apologise for raiding a temple. It is the Dutch palace because the Dutch carried out the renovations. It was in this palace that we learned all the history about the Rajas, and the Maharajas.
Fort Cochin also has Chinese fishing nets and Sally jumped on board and helped with the fishing... not a huge catch unfortunately but it is a bad time of year for the fish apparently. In Fort Cochin, it is usual to buy your fish fresh from the fishermen and take them to the restaurants to have them cooked.
The other major thing we saw was the Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in the entire British Commonwealth, which was built in the 1500s when there used to be a huge Jewish community in Kerala. Now, there are only 7 Jews in Fort Cochin as they leave to move to Israel. We also broke into the Jewish cemetery (on the aptly named Jew Cemetery Road) to pay our respects. Unfortunately a lot of the graves had been destroyed, but the keepers of the synagogue have salvaged them and they were all kept in the grounds.
Our accommodation in Fort Cochin was... budget. Costing us about 2 pounds each a night we thought we had found somewhere pretty decent. Until, we were given a curfew of 11.30pm and water started leaking through the roof on top of Kate who was sick whilst the monsoon was pouring. A girl has to be pretty ill to just ignore the water, not move the bed, put a bucket underneath to catch the water or arrange for a new room. Fortunately Nurse Sally was on hand to fix everything!
Our nights were spent in a restaurant watching the football and drinking "special tea" (beer in a teapot as they don't have a license).
One great thing about Fort Cochin is the tuk tuk drivers will offer you a free ride anywhere as long as you agree to go into a shop and look around for 5 minutes, they get their commission and we get a free journey.
We then discovered that there was a 24 hour strike across the whole of India on the day that we were supposed to be leaving, so no taxis or tuk tuks would be running. So, our backpacks were now stored in a hotel an hours walk from the train station... we couldn't really stay there so had to negotiate getting our bags back the day before the strike (by paying them off with 100 rupees) and finding a hotel close to the station. Once again, it was pouring with rain, but we managed a much better deal after what felt like hours of hotels telling us they were fully booked as obviously all other travellers had the same idea!
So, the following day, we left the earily quiet Ernakulum and jumped on the train to Margao in the South of Goa. Having, as usual, done very little research on the best place to go in Goa, we decided we were just going to go to the nearest beach seeing as it was out of season, no travellers would be there anyway, and we would have a few days to recuperate from long train journeys that without exception make us both ill.
On the train, we met Jon and Giles, who without doubt turned our trip to Goa around... they told us they were going to Baga which is supposed to be the only place where tourists would be going and also the best night life. Of course this would cost us money... but you only go to Goa once right? (we really need to stop justifying spending money with that!)
So, we went to Baga, arriving at the slightly less annoying time of 6am and the four of us took a walk around the hotels (guess what, it was raining again) and tried to find a good deal. And when else, other than when you are travelling, do you meet someone one day and then agree to share a hotel room with them for a week following that?
Most of Goa disappeared in a haze of alcohol, sleeping and the Star Movies channel as believe it or not, the rain just kept on coming. We met loads of other holiday makers (still no long term travellers yet) from all over the world as every night we were in the same bars watching the football and then dancing the night away.
It is common for everyone in Goa to rent a bike or moped - I think we were the only group of people who didn't rent any - although a lift was always available from new found friends or friendly locals. One day, we did decide to rent mopeds... Sally didn't bother, Kate drove hers fine, Giles couldn't get the hang of it and Jon smashed his into the car of the person who rented him the bike! A 3000 rupee payoff got him off the hook, and we all left on foot after the manager took the other bikes back too. One day of sunshine burnt us terribly as everyone played football (Sally watching) and we swam in the sea. Which is apparently very dangerous, particularly at the spot of beach we were on... the current was REALLY strong and every time we got too far out the lifeguards would have to drive out into the sea to drag us back. But we are all strong swimmers and everyone was fine, if not a little pink when we returned.
Other bribes in Goa included Kate paying off an angry Indian when Jon jumped on someones bike whilst drunk and driving it into another car (1000 rupees) - Sally got together a search party of 12 people to look for them after it took half an hour for them to get 2 minutes down the road, and Sally paying off a policeman as she didn't have a license while driving someones bike (500 rupees). But we lived to tell the tale and have learned... stay away from bikes and linen closets and all will be fine!
Our last night was spent at a private pool party at our American friends hotel, before we had to be up and out early to catch our train to Mumbai.
Which is where we write this from today. Sally has been really ill since being in Goa... it is either the ice they put in the drinks or just too many drinks all together... feeling better now and hence able to write this!
Promise to write again sooner, as I am sure a lot of details have been forgotten in this update...
Expect to hear from us in Bali!
Much love
Sally and Katie xxx
Sunday 27 June 2010
Rajasthan, Agra and Varanasi...
Today we sit in an internet cafe, sweating as it is 50 degrees outside, and slightly cooler in here at about 45 degrees. We are in Varanasi, one of the holiest cities in India for the Hindus. The story of how we got here involves a lot of travelling, a lot of packing, unpacking, repacking and unpacking again.
Our last update had us in Delhi (again) the night before we were due to leave for a trip around Rajasthan. We had met Fillipe, an Argentinian travelling alone, in the airport from Kashmir, so were with him in the internet cafe and invited him along with us for the next section of the trip. Poor poor guy, don't think he realised quite what he was getting himself into when he agreed!
Anyway, the following morning involved an early start, followed by an 8 hour drive in an "air conditioned" car to Pushka with our driver Paw, who would be with us for the next 8 days. Arriving in Pushka, very tired, it didn't really seem worth it. A decent hotel in the middle of the desert, not really worth an 8 hour drive but there you go.
Turns out, Pushka is probably our favourite place we visited so far, it was literally one bazarre (everywhere in India looks pretty much the same) in the middle of the desert but we felt very comfortable there and our hours walk up and down the strip every day always ended in some adventure or another. The thing we most noticed about there was how colourful it is, with all the sari's of the witches of Pushka!
Kate and her red hair proved to be very popular and all the women wanted to shake her hand or just touch her, as if they have never seen anything like it before!
Pushka is one of the three holiest places in India, where Brama (one of the three main gods) - the Creator - used to live. He married a second wife so the story goes, and when his first wife found out, she decreed that they couldn't worship in any of the 500 temples, and only at the lake (which was almost dried up when we were there). So, we went to visit the lake and were immediately pounced upon by "priests". The reason I put this in inverted commas is because they were the least priestly looking priests we have ever seen... but anyway, we let them bless us, had to repeat a mantra after them and then throw flowers in the water along with red powder, orange powder and rice. Some of this was mixed in water and put as a bindi on our heads. Next came the "we will do a prayer for your family, how much money is your family worth as a donation?" Ah! OK, sorry family, Sally's is worth 150 rupees (about 2 pounds) and Kate's is worth 100 rupees. And for our troubles, we got a bit of string to tie around our wrists.
Sally decided she would like to get a henna on her hand, so we walked through the strip to a shopthat was advertising it. Somehow, the search for henna ended up in us both getting a massage with this crazy man from Kerala removing our bad karma and "throwing" it out. And then he had the cheek to try and charge us 1400 rupees each for the pleasure... we paid him 250 each and he sent us to his sister in law.
Sally finally got the henna on her hand under strict instructions not to wash, swim or get it wet for 24 hours. Slight pain, but manageable until the skies opened.
She would have been complaining, but rain was such a blessed relief after all the heat that we just carried on walking. We became the pied pipers of Pushka as all the young beggar boys started to follow us, saying "chapatti chapatti chapatti" (chapatti is bread). We fell in love with these boys and bought them some flour for chapatti and some biscuits. One of the older boys told us that it is common for the shop keepers to come after them once tourists bought them food and confiscate them, so we made sure we watched them get back to their shacks with their mothers and had opened the food.
After Pushka, we moved onto Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, a three hour drive from Pushka... not worth visiting unless we missed something whilst there, but we did manage to be celebrities for the day! We went to the Amber fort and Sally was asked to pose for at least 50 photos with vaious Indian men, women and children, she was even asked to hold babies for pictures! We have later heard that she looks like a Bollywood actress!! The only other positive about Jaipur was our accommodation, as we had an outdoor lounge to ourselves, with movie channels, a nice way to pass the evenings.
After Jaipur came Ranthambhore National Park... another waste of time as the whole reason to go there was to see tigers and we didn't see a single one! We had a room with air-conditioning which cooled a total area of about 2 square meters in a very narrow strip... oh and every half an hour there was a total power cut and the AC switched off... at least 8 times in the night, one of us would have to get into the bathroom, fill a bucket of water (oh yeah, no showers) and throw it over our heads. The pair of us had to sleep across the foot of both beds in the hope of getting some air conditioning!!
The plus side was, we did have a pool, and this was where we met Dave (Davindra) who said he owned a 5* hotel down the road and did we want to come for dinner? Seeing as there were three of us, and a free dinner was on offer, there didn't seem to be any harm in going, so we accepted the offer and went to the hotel that evening. Knowing the safari was booked for 5.30am the next day, and Argentina was playing at midnight, we thought a quick dinner and then back to our hotel would be perfect... but no.
We were kept in the hotel until about 2am, plied with Rum and were only allowed to leave when the drinks had been finished. Thank goodness for Filippe for making sure we were ok and for finishing the drinks when we couldn't take any more.
So you can imagine the state we were in when we had to get up at stupid o'clock in the morning to see a National Park that didn't have any tigers in it! Had we been less tired, we may have appreciated it for the beauty of the park as well as the less exciting animals. Oh, and Sally did have a HUGE bird sitting on her hand eating biscuits at one point.
After Ranthambhore came Agra, home of the Taj Mahal, on the hottest day we have experienced so far... and of course we decided to go there at 12pm... not the most sensible idea! Just for an idea of how strict they are in what you can take to the Taj, we had to check in a torch and a camera tripod into the lockers... clearly they are very dangerous objects!! The Taj is every bit as impressive as we had hoped, but it was just too hot to enjoy it at all, so hot, it turns out even princesses do sweat. A LOT! And of course, you have to remove your shoes everywhere here and walking on the marble floor was a nightmare!
After only one night in Agra, we then went to the station in order to catch a train to Varanasi. Now, we knew the train was due at 8.30pm and we knew we had to be on platform 3. Proud of ourselves for getting to the station two hours early, we sat down in the waiting room and started talking to a Canadian couple. We even managed to get onto the platform by 8pm so that there was no way we could miss the train. Here was where we learned that trains do not have their names, numbers or destinations on there. They also don't tell you in English whether your train is delayed. 10pm, still sitting on the platform, and the skies open again! All of a sudden, there are rats, that's right, rats running across the platform to get out of the rain...!
Every train that came through the platform, we were told wasn't ours... finally at 10.30pm the right train came in. For all our organisation, we were so far away from our reserved carriage that we had to run, backpack and all, all the way down the platform and jump on the train as it started moving! So much for being highly organised, we were ten seconds from missing our train entirely!
Considering how bad most forms of transport are in India, we were very impressed by the trains. We took 3AC class (thee bunks on one side of the train and three on the other with air conditioning) and slept up one side of the train. It was a very comfortable journey and we all managed to sleep through til the morning. The only downside was the "bathrooms" which was really just a hole in the floor... but we coped...!
And so, we arrived early morning in Varanasi a couple of days ago. We checked into our hotel, had a sleep, and in the afternoon went to Sarnath which is the site of an ancient Bhuddist temple, where it is believed that Budda himself meditated. It was only discovered by British Architects in the early 20th century.
The following day entailed a 4.30am wake up for a early morning boat ride along the Ganges river. Varanasi is also one of the three holiest cities in India and it is also believed to be the oldest. This is the city of Shiva - the destroyer - and it is the place that all Hindu's come to die. There are many many hospices lining the ghats (steps by the river bank).
We were taken to the burning ghat by boat, where 2-300 bodies every day are burned by the ganges and then the stenum (for men) and the hip bone (for women) are thrown into the Ganges. If a Hindu is burned at Varanasi, they go straight to Nirvana, and for this reason, women are not allowed to accompany they bodies as if they cry, they will stop the entry to Nirvana. We also did this boat trip the same evening and saw nine bodies being burned. There is an eternal flame that has been burning for 3000 years and the owner of the temple where this sits is a hugely rich man, being that he can sell this flame to every family who has a body to burn. It all sounds a bit morbid, just sitting there and watching, but it was incredibly spiritual, and the Hindu's look upon it all as a celebration.
We also saw a body being thrown into the middle of the Ganges as children (as they look like gods) pregnant women, very holy men and those with chicken pox cannot be burned.
We went to a number of Hindu temples and started to get an idea of quite how difficult life is to be a Hindu. It is common for Hindu's to visit three or four temples in one day, and some will sit in the same place chanting mantra for 24 hours. It is nice how individual the religion is, there are no set services and they are very giving with people of religions other than theirs. We were privileged enough to be allowed into a Hindu only temple and blessed with a prayer whiles being tapped by a peacock feather, having a bindi put on, and a knotted rope tied as a necklace.
And this brings us to where we are today... it is now nearly 4pm and in a couple of hours we are being taken to the station to catch a train back to Delhi, where we will say goodbye to the lovely Filippe who is off to S.E Asia and we will make our journey down South!
Updates (and hopefully photos) soon,
All our love
Sally and Katie
Tuesday 15 June 2010
We can't get out of Delhi!
Hello world!
If you are wondering why you havent heard from us in a week...
June 9th, we packed up our bags and left for our city tour as arranged. It was an interesting (?) tour, not much was seen as it was too hot to leave the air conditioned car, the temples wanted all our belongings locked away and the museums wanted all our money. On top of this, we have been told that there were troubles in Amritsar, where we had bought tickets for later that day! We decided not to go, and that it where the phrase "we can't get out of Delhi" came from.
At this point, we had nowhere to live, nowhere to go, and no idea where to head for instead! We then spoke to some travel agents for some ideas and read our Lonely Planet book for inspiration. We decided to heat North, somewhere quiet so we could plan the rest of India as it is not quite as easy as expected! And, its a BIG place!
We settled in Srinagar, Kashmir, in the very North of India. The Lonely Planet describes it as "Indulgent houseboats on placid Dal Lake, famous Mughal gardens, colourfully historic wooden mosques and Rozabal's 'Jesus tomb'".
Perfext, we thought, and booked ourselves a flight for the next morning. Of course, only the best for us princesses, so we booked a delux houseboat too!
Landing at Srinagar airport, we were slightly shocked by the number of soldiers inside and outside the terminal. (Later told the figure of 10 soldiers to every person!)
Little were we to realise what would happen whilst there...
Our driver picked us up from the airport and drove (almost as madly as the do in Delhi) to Dal Lake. Once arriving, we could see what all the fuss was about. The views of the Himalayas, hundreds of houseboats surounding a mirror flat lake with lots of Shikara (a local rowing boat with beds) crossing backwards and forwards. We were taken across the lake and checked into our houseboat, the Star of Kashmir. We found a very old English decorated houseboat as these were first build during English colonial times and during this time, they were not allowed to build on the land. We were shown to our room, brought some Kashmir tea and told to settle in by the manager who promised to come back and see us once he had sorted out a tour for another guest.
Half an hour later, we were taken to another room and the manager attempted to sell us a 420 pound 6 take trek into the Himalayas. We made it clear that we werent able to pay for this and somehow found ourselves agreeing to a 10,000 RS (175 pounds) trip which consisted of 4 single day trips. Fortunately we didn't hand over any money at this time, as later that evening we both began to get a little paranoid about how we were practically stranded on a boat 200m from land and had somehow promised to hand overa weeks budget to do activities that we weren't interested in doing in the first place.
We had also met an Israeli girl who was travelling alone and had recieved the same pushy sales treatment we had. Although she had taken an 27 hour bus ride to get there, she had gotten so upset that she booked to go back again the very next day. Bear in mind, none of our phones were working, we had (we thought) no access to the internet, oh and we were in KASHMIR!
Needless tosay, neither of us slept too wel that night, and locked up our belongings securely.
The next day, we told the manager we didnt want to do the trip, and he demanded we pay the tax on it (22.5% - we got away without paying so no worries there).
We then found out there was internet access and payphones just along the lake, and one of the servants rowed us across. We spent some time searching for cheap flights to get us straight out of there and back to Delhi where we felt safe ("we can't get out of Delhi!")
We then phoned our travel agents Vijay and Sunny and told them we were very unhappy and wanted to leave. Next thing we knew, they had phoned our boat manager and told him everything we had said and he turned up in our internet cafe. Turns out, we had already got two trips included in the the price of our accommodation and we could get a flight our of there for no extra charge on 15th June.
OK, fine, we will grin and bear it, not ideal that we have had a "disaster" within days of getting here, but we will do the tours and spend the rest of the time planning the rest of the trip as we had previously devided.
As time went on, we actually really started to enjoy ourselves. What we originally thought was pushiness was actually friendliness and whilst the owner of the boat was possibly a little crazy, he was a kind man who actually wanted us to enjoy our stay as much as possible. Anything we wanted was brought to us and we had meals included (which were all very nice)
One of our trips was a Shikara ride and we were picked up early morning by Manzoo, our guide and best friend for the day. We were expected to lie back on the beds while poor Manzoo rowed us for 10 hours but we were having none of that. Instead, within half an hour, Kate had picked up the other oar and Sally was able to lie back and get the princess treatment (sound about right?)
We passed many floating gardent, mountains and fellow boated during the day. We visited a small town and mosque and received many strange looks as if we were the first Western tourists in town. We chilled with Manzoo who was very over protective as many people approached us and he eaither shooed them away or told us we must move. As we left the town by boat, children were throwing stones at us, and later that day we found out why...!
We headed to the old city which took some time as the wind was against us, so we all took an oar (even Sally) and helped. We experienced our first meal without cutlery and ate rice and vegetable curry with our hands. It was very nice, if a little unhygenic!
We then visited the honey house and tried samples of honey, from Lotus and Almond, through to Hashish and Opium!
According to "Mrs Honey", Mick Jagger has been to her house and bought honey from her also!
She fel in love with Sally and kept telling her "you are very very beautiful" - this seems to be a recurring theme in India!
We then left (after buying a pot of lotus honey) and visited some floating shops on route home. When arriving, we were informed that a 24 hour curfew had been put out in Srinagar as the army had shot three young boys for throwing stones. Which explains the treatment we got earlier!
The next few days were spent drinking Kashmir tea, reading on top deck and watching the shikara pass by. Our tour of the city was cancelled, which worked out ok due to a servere case of Delhi belly which left Kate in bed for a day or two!
We spent most evenings chilling on top of the boat - to the left we had the green covered foot of the Himalayas, the right, snow covered peaks and bright blue skies. One evening, the sky became totally overcast, turning day into night and we thought we would stay out and watch the storm. It was probably the most fascinating experience yet as we literally heard the thunder as the clouds hit the mountains. We could actually feel the vibrations through the wood of the boat. Not a drop of rain fell on us but we were able to see the most beautiful rainbow appear from the foot of the mountain!
And now we are home, well back in Delhi ("we can't get out of Delhi!")
And best news of all is we have a plan for the rest of the trip! We are staying a night here and then heading for a week or so to Rajasthan!
And so here is where we will leave you!
All our love,
Sally and Katie xxx
If you are wondering why you havent heard from us in a week...
June 9th, we packed up our bags and left for our city tour as arranged. It was an interesting (?) tour, not much was seen as it was too hot to leave the air conditioned car, the temples wanted all our belongings locked away and the museums wanted all our money. On top of this, we have been told that there were troubles in Amritsar, where we had bought tickets for later that day! We decided not to go, and that it where the phrase "we can't get out of Delhi" came from.
At this point, we had nowhere to live, nowhere to go, and no idea where to head for instead! We then spoke to some travel agents for some ideas and read our Lonely Planet book for inspiration. We decided to heat North, somewhere quiet so we could plan the rest of India as it is not quite as easy as expected! And, its a BIG place!
We settled in Srinagar, Kashmir, in the very North of India. The Lonely Planet describes it as "Indulgent houseboats on placid Dal Lake, famous Mughal gardens, colourfully historic wooden mosques and Rozabal's 'Jesus tomb'".
Perfext, we thought, and booked ourselves a flight for the next morning. Of course, only the best for us princesses, so we booked a delux houseboat too!
Landing at Srinagar airport, we were slightly shocked by the number of soldiers inside and outside the terminal. (Later told the figure of 10 soldiers to every person!)
Little were we to realise what would happen whilst there...
Our driver picked us up from the airport and drove (almost as madly as the do in Delhi) to Dal Lake. Once arriving, we could see what all the fuss was about. The views of the Himalayas, hundreds of houseboats surounding a mirror flat lake with lots of Shikara (a local rowing boat with beds) crossing backwards and forwards. We were taken across the lake and checked into our houseboat, the Star of Kashmir. We found a very old English decorated houseboat as these were first build during English colonial times and during this time, they were not allowed to build on the land. We were shown to our room, brought some Kashmir tea and told to settle in by the manager who promised to come back and see us once he had sorted out a tour for another guest.
Half an hour later, we were taken to another room and the manager attempted to sell us a 420 pound 6 take trek into the Himalayas. We made it clear that we werent able to pay for this and somehow found ourselves agreeing to a 10,000 RS (175 pounds) trip which consisted of 4 single day trips. Fortunately we didn't hand over any money at this time, as later that evening we both began to get a little paranoid about how we were practically stranded on a boat 200m from land and had somehow promised to hand overa weeks budget to do activities that we weren't interested in doing in the first place.
We had also met an Israeli girl who was travelling alone and had recieved the same pushy sales treatment we had. Although she had taken an 27 hour bus ride to get there, she had gotten so upset that she booked to go back again the very next day. Bear in mind, none of our phones were working, we had (we thought) no access to the internet, oh and we were in KASHMIR!
Needless tosay, neither of us slept too wel that night, and locked up our belongings securely.
The next day, we told the manager we didnt want to do the trip, and he demanded we pay the tax on it (22.5% - we got away without paying so no worries there).
We then found out there was internet access and payphones just along the lake, and one of the servants rowed us across. We spent some time searching for cheap flights to get us straight out of there and back to Delhi where we felt safe ("we can't get out of Delhi!")
We then phoned our travel agents Vijay and Sunny and told them we were very unhappy and wanted to leave. Next thing we knew, they had phoned our boat manager and told him everything we had said and he turned up in our internet cafe. Turns out, we had already got two trips included in the the price of our accommodation and we could get a flight our of there for no extra charge on 15th June.
OK, fine, we will grin and bear it, not ideal that we have had a "disaster" within days of getting here, but we will do the tours and spend the rest of the time planning the rest of the trip as we had previously devided.
As time went on, we actually really started to enjoy ourselves. What we originally thought was pushiness was actually friendliness and whilst the owner of the boat was possibly a little crazy, he was a kind man who actually wanted us to enjoy our stay as much as possible. Anything we wanted was brought to us and we had meals included (which were all very nice)
One of our trips was a Shikara ride and we were picked up early morning by Manzoo, our guide and best friend for the day. We were expected to lie back on the beds while poor Manzoo rowed us for 10 hours but we were having none of that. Instead, within half an hour, Kate had picked up the other oar and Sally was able to lie back and get the princess treatment (sound about right?)
We passed many floating gardent, mountains and fellow boated during the day. We visited a small town and mosque and received many strange looks as if we were the first Western tourists in town. We chilled with Manzoo who was very over protective as many people approached us and he eaither shooed them away or told us we must move. As we left the town by boat, children were throwing stones at us, and later that day we found out why...!
We headed to the old city which took some time as the wind was against us, so we all took an oar (even Sally) and helped. We experienced our first meal without cutlery and ate rice and vegetable curry with our hands. It was very nice, if a little unhygenic!
We then visited the honey house and tried samples of honey, from Lotus and Almond, through to Hashish and Opium!
According to "Mrs Honey", Mick Jagger has been to her house and bought honey from her also!
She fel in love with Sally and kept telling her "you are very very beautiful" - this seems to be a recurring theme in India!
We then left (after buying a pot of lotus honey) and visited some floating shops on route home. When arriving, we were informed that a 24 hour curfew had been put out in Srinagar as the army had shot three young boys for throwing stones. Which explains the treatment we got earlier!
The next few days were spent drinking Kashmir tea, reading on top deck and watching the shikara pass by. Our tour of the city was cancelled, which worked out ok due to a servere case of Delhi belly which left Kate in bed for a day or two!
We spent most evenings chilling on top of the boat - to the left we had the green covered foot of the Himalayas, the right, snow covered peaks and bright blue skies. One evening, the sky became totally overcast, turning day into night and we thought we would stay out and watch the storm. It was probably the most fascinating experience yet as we literally heard the thunder as the clouds hit the mountains. We could actually feel the vibrations through the wood of the boat. Not a drop of rain fell on us but we were able to see the most beautiful rainbow appear from the foot of the mountain!
And now we are home, well back in Delhi ("we can't get out of Delhi!")
And best news of all is we have a plan for the rest of the trip! We are staying a night here and then heading for a week or so to Rajasthan!
And so here is where we will leave you!
All our love,
Sally and Katie xxx
Tuesday 8 June 2010
We have arrived in Delhi!
Hi all!
Just thought I would give you an update on our trip so far.
We arrived in Delhi late last night and within 10 minutes had our first adventure... getting into a taxi. There don't seem to be any road laws here, red lights are ignored and road markings seem to be for aesthetic purposes only! The only way to get anywhere is to weave in and out of cars, oxen, people, scooters, bikes, mopeds and rickshaws, beeping the horn and flashing the lights!
We had booked ourselves into a hotel for the night, very expensive by Delhi standards. It was decorated in bright multicolours, with the letter things that opticians use for lights and other multicoloured flashing lightbulbs. CRAZY!
This morning, we checked out of the hotel and moved to another hostel. It is actually very nice, with a real (own) toilet and air conditioning... and this is costing us a fiver a night.
The part of Delhi we are staying in is like nowhere I have ever seen... there are no actual roads or pavements, it is more of a free for all... and it is all just full of dust and rocks.
Very quickly I had to change out of western clothing and into a pair of Indian trousers pretty sharpish!
We have both bought Indian mobiles which is free to recieve calls from the UK.
It is evening now and we are both pretty exhausted - it has not been too hot here today which is a relief although I am sure that will change soon.
Tomorrow we have arranged for a driver to pick us up at 9.30am for a tour around the whole of Delhi and then catching a sleeper train to Amritsar, which is where the Golden Temple is.
And that is where I will leave you for now... more updates soon I promise.
We are both happy and well (even though I have obviously already injured myself and can't move my neck... REALLY hope a good sleep will cure that for me!)
Much love,
Sally
Just thought I would give you an update on our trip so far.
We arrived in Delhi late last night and within 10 minutes had our first adventure... getting into a taxi. There don't seem to be any road laws here, red lights are ignored and road markings seem to be for aesthetic purposes only! The only way to get anywhere is to weave in and out of cars, oxen, people, scooters, bikes, mopeds and rickshaws, beeping the horn and flashing the lights!
We had booked ourselves into a hotel for the night, very expensive by Delhi standards. It was decorated in bright multicolours, with the letter things that opticians use for lights and other multicoloured flashing lightbulbs. CRAZY!
This morning, we checked out of the hotel and moved to another hostel. It is actually very nice, with a real (own) toilet and air conditioning... and this is costing us a fiver a night.
The part of Delhi we are staying in is like nowhere I have ever seen... there are no actual roads or pavements, it is more of a free for all... and it is all just full of dust and rocks.
Very quickly I had to change out of western clothing and into a pair of Indian trousers pretty sharpish!
We have both bought Indian mobiles which is free to recieve calls from the UK.
It is evening now and we are both pretty exhausted - it has not been too hot here today which is a relief although I am sure that will change soon.
Tomorrow we have arranged for a driver to pick us up at 9.30am for a tour around the whole of Delhi and then catching a sleeper train to Amritsar, which is where the Golden Temple is.
And that is where I will leave you for now... more updates soon I promise.
We are both happy and well (even though I have obviously already injured myself and can't move my neck... REALLY hope a good sleep will cure that for me!)
Much love,
Sally
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