My travels

Delhi: Our last in India

qui001 — Wed, 8 Apr 2009 21:29:00 GMT

After a super early start at 3.30 am after not a lot of sleep, we got on the train to Delhi at 5.30 and crashed out until we arrived at 12 noon. Stepping out of Old Delhi train station we were bombarded by tuc tuc drivers quoting ridiculous prices for a tuc tuc to our hotel. After some pushing and haggling we managed to get a tuc tuc for a half decent price (still was expensive) the tuc tuc driver was claiming it was 10 km when in reality according to our map it was approximately 3 km. We finally agreed a price and got in the tuc tuc, and well, india had been saving the best until last. This was our worst tuc tuc journey yet. It took almost 1 hour in stinking traffic in the tiny streets of old delhi that were crammed with shops and their produce on the street, parked cars and motorbikes, cycle ricksaws full of bricks and other goods being pushed by men, tuc tucs, taxis and larger trucks. And in every conceivable space in between were pedestrians literally squeezing between vehicles or holding up their hands in supplication and they dived in the traffic attempting to cross the road. There was so much noise and we were so tired from our long trip of 2 months that when we got to the hotel we just hid inside all day long.

Jaipur...the second time!

qui001 — Tue, 7 Apr 2009 21:18:00 GMT

We were up early again the next morning so that we could do a full day of sight seeing and shopping in Jaipur as it was our last full day with the three of us together and almost our last day in India. In the morning Jacqui took Michele to her favourite shop….Fabindia!!!!!!!!, whilst Marc discovered it was a holiday in the post office (as usual!) and there was no parcel service that day. Jacqui and Michele spent a fun morning going through all the Saris, salwas, kurtas and table linen in the shop, turning the place upside down! Michele bought lots of nice things, including a really nice peacock green sari and the lady in the shop showed her how to put it on. Two and a half hours later Jacqui and Michele returned to meet Marc for a nice Indian lunch in a cute little restaurant playing cheesy dubbed music. After filling our bellies we started the walking tour of Jaipur, through the bazaar and the small shady streets of the old city (the pink city). Whilst we were walking through the bazaar we saw a tower that was part of the walls of the city palace, so we decided to go inside and climbed to the top to get a good view of Jaipur. Despite the traffic and noise, Jaipur was surprisingly green with trees lining some streets and a few parks. We had a great view of the sandy hills that surrounded Jaipur that were completely obscured at street level. It was getting late in the hot afternoon and we accidentally meandered through a touristy area near the city palace and we started getting hassled a lot. With the fatigue of our long trip travelling, the heat and the stress of being hassled Marc and Jacqui started to loose the plot, Marc was on another planet and Jacqui was having fits of giggles. Michele was starting to wander what was going on.

We decided that a time out was necessary so we went to see the last landmark before a well earned cup of tea. We arrived at the famous Hawa Mahal (palace of the wind) a huge big wall with 5 or 6 floors of carved and painted windows in the distinctive pink colour of Jaipur. Whilst Michele went in search of a scarf to match her new Fabindia purchase, Jacqui was squatting down on the floor outside the shop to rest. Some women wearing sari’s carrying pots on their head walked past and started giggling and pointing at this funny blond westerner in a salwa kameez squatting like a local on the floor. After this final effort we went and sat on a street corner and drank chai for an hour just to chill out a bit whilst waiting for the sunset. After sundown we decided to dive (bravely) into the textile bazaar. As expected it’s an amazing place full of colour, the shops were selling every kind of material, saris, salwa etc. Even though it’s a busy place it was much quieter that the main road, and nobody was pushing us to buy or even to see their shop- hurrah! Michele found some nice edging for her new scarf and we found a tailor to sew it on for 20 rupees. After that we were exhausted and it was time to go home. After a crazy tuc tuc ride we made back to the hotel where we hid for the rest of the evening sharing the last beer in the hotel. When it was time for bed we said our goodbyes to Michele, she was off to Bombay the next day and we were off to Delhi by train at 5 am (yuk!).

Bundi

qui001 — Mon, 6 Apr 2009 20:46:00 GMT

Very tired and hot and sweaty, we arrived in Bundi. As the bus approached the town we saw an striking building on the hillside, built into the side of the hil, with a fort wall surrounding it. On closer inspection we could also see a large fort on the top of the hill. The town down below was full of neat, blue, freshly painted houses, it was beautiful. As we were passing on the main road Michele said, “Oh I really hope this is Bundi!!!” and lo! and behold… it was J.

We arrived at the bus station and had to take our bags off the roof as soon as possible as the bus driver was pushing us since he wanted to leave, as we had tied them on so tightly Marc had to sacrifice one of the straps of his bag in order to get it off. We grabbed a tuc tuc to our hotel for the night which was a 200 year old haveli just down from the fort. It had fantastic paintings on the walls (although it was super hot inside). We dropped our bags and went for a quick walk around this sleepy, quiet (by Indian standards) town. We walked through the small, winding streets and down to the colourful market that surrounded the square. We came upon an amazing stepped water tank with majestic arches adorned with elephants crowning the long set of stairs that went down to the water at the bottom. It was getting late and we were very tired, so we decided to go back to near the hotel and get some food (also because we’d been warned that after dark in Bundi huge numbers of bats fill the sky!). We found a really nice place to eat and ordered a lot of yummy Indian curry and Marc was very happy to be eating animal protein again!

After dinner we retired to the luxury of the old haveli and Jacqui and Michele sat up talking on the second floor of the courtyard inside the old haveli, sitting on dark wood antique furniture surrounded by wall paintings.

The next morning we woke up early and had a quick breakfast to be ready to visit the fort in the cool of the morning. The star fort is on the top of the hill overlooking Bundi and the palace and to climb up there was quite hard work. Even by 9am we were already hot and sweating. On the way to the star fort we met few families of evil monkeys (the nasty brown ones, not the nice white ones). They were very bold and not afraid of us in the least, so Jacquie brandished a stick to make them back off but one of the monkey became aggressive and bared teeth, almost declaring war, so they obviously understood what the stick meant. After half an hour of climbing, we finally arrived on the top of the hill and began to discover the ruins of the star fort. It was fabulous, we felt like we were in an adventure movie! From the fort we could see the view of the blue town nestled in the green and dusty valley. The fort was shaped like a five pointed star to make it easier to defend. We entered the main building by a huge door covered with spikes. The entire building was dilapidated but we could still see some of the former glory, some brightly coloured paintings were still visible and we could imagine the place filled with life and colour. In a courtyard inside the fort, an old woman was sitting drawing a troup monkeys which were sitting picking insects out of each other’s hair. It looked like she had been here for a couple of hours already and we tried not to disturb her or her subjects. After visiting the palace we tried to go to the bastion on the top of the hill for a view, but, arriving at the entry we saw “NO ENTRY” sign and we found out that this was being used as an antenna station.

After the fort, we walked partway down the hill and went to visit the palace. We saw the evil monkey again but we decided to adopt a peaceful demeanour so as not to be attacked by 10 angry monkeys. Approaching the palace from the cobbled road the first thing we saw was the huge entry gate which was comprised of two massive elephants fighting. Walking through the door was the characteristic sun with a face and moustache (which represents the lineage of the maharaja). Entering there was a grand courtyard below, a large veranda with a marble throne; this was the hall of public address. We walked up the stairs, onto the veranda and across another courtyard on the second floor which had a room filled with stone pillars which had little elephants at the top holding up the roof at one end. At the other end of the courtyard was a room filled with wall paintings that were extremely detailed and contained many colours but particularly featured peacock green and azul blue as well as gold leaf. This room was complete with mirrored doors and on the outside there was a lovely peacock design above one of the windows. Going up another level we entered another room in which the walls were adorned with many small mirrors surrounding the pictures, entering the main area we saw that the walls were completely covered by a painting of an epic war. It was very intricate and contained thousands of figures holding various types of weapons, also people riding horses, elephants and camels into war. It was an amazing sight. Up yet another level we entered a small, quite dark room with a geometic domed ceiling with the most fabulous paintings of abstract pictures of mystical animals (dragons etc), gods (with blue skin like Lord Shiva), women with bird wings etc. We spent 10 minutes in this room just looking at all the details discovering new things every minute. On the way back down to the main courtyard we were walking through one of the corridors which smelt rather awful. Then when we looked up we realised the ceiling was covered with bats roosting upside down- this explained the smell! I gave us quite a fright to see quite so many large bats hanging upside down not that far from your head! We took a few steps back before we stopped to look at them hanging there (especially since none of us had had the rabies injection!). After the palace we took Michele for a Rajasthani thali (and Marc had a highly nutritious meal of potato burger and chips = potato and more potato!!). The hotel owner hold us that there was a superfast Jaipur bus at 1.30 with air con (wow!!) but when we got to the bus station they said there was no such bus and we ended up on the local buses (again). It was the longest (and most rough!) bus journey of our whole trip and poor Michele was squeezed up against about 10 indian guys. (Question: How many Indians can you fit on a bus? Answer: More than you think and there is ALWAYS space for more!). It took 6 hours and it was really hot and smelly. We just sat there hoping that the engine would not blow up. The bus was already full and more people would get inside, there was not much space for anyone! We were all very glad to make it back to Jaipur and to stand up and relieve our sore bottoms by walking to the hotel. The air con and the cold beer in the hotel was exactly what we needed.

Pushy Pushkar

qui001 — Fri, 3 Apr 2009 18:33:00 GMT

We rocked up at the bus station and found a bus to Ajmer, which is the main town near Pushkar. We managed to find a super posh super fast express that only took 3 hours J a nice introduction for Michele to Indian driving. We changed in Ajmer to a much more local bus (full to the brim with people) that was going to Pushkar and after a short trip we found ourselves in the middle of baggy trouser mecca. The main street was end to end full of crusty fashion tailors and jewellery shops with people asking us to buy things all the time (or wanting to sell “special” Lassi/tea/cake). We arrived at the hotel which was (thankfully) very cheap, this was the cheapest town we’d been in so far. The hotel was quite nice with a nice green courtyard with vines covering the walls and rooftop terrace. We went out in search of something to eat and we walked past a local guy sitting in front of a huge pan of hot oil frying something that looked a bit like jalebi but wasn’t. intrigued we stopped to ask him what is was, it was called sweet chapatti – so of course we had to try it. It was a like a very buttery, deep fried pancake soaked in sweet sugar syrup. It was VERY yummy J. After that quick excursion we decided it was too hot outside and we retreated to the hotel to chill out in the cool shade of the courtyard. When the sun was less strong we ventured back out again to book a cooking lesson for the next day and to visit the famous temple. Since no bags were allowed inside the temple, Marc was happy to volunteer to stay outside with our stuff as he had seen one temple too many already, so Jacqui and Michele went inside to offer flowers to get a blessing for their friends and families. Originally Pushkar was a temple town and with the influx of travellers the locals had decided to issue some “rules” to dictate how people can behave. For example, the entire town was strictly vegetarian (much to Marc’s dismay), not even eggs were allowed. Alcohol was not allowed (but you could find it if you asked around), displays of affection in public prohibited and also shoes were not allowed within 10m of the lake (and no photos of people near the water either). In the evening we retired to the rooftop terrace in the hotel and polished off the rest of our rum on the quiet!

After a hot night another hot morning followed. After a lie in, and a late breakfast we decided to chill out in the courtyard for a while since it was hot again outside. We found an uno game and we played several rounds along with and English couple and the help of the young Indian boy who was serving in the hotel.

A bit later that evening the three of us set off for our cooking lesson. We were squeezed onto motorbikes (three per bike!) and shuttled off the other end of town in a nice garden of a house. There in a little room us and two others spent the next three hours slaving over a hot stove learning some Indian cooking secrets. In this lesson we learnt how to make real Indian daal, parantha, dam aloo (a saucy potato dish) and plain halva dessert.

We all enjoyed the class and we are looking forward to sharing our new found cooking skills with everyone back home. We walked back from the cooking class slowly, over a little bridge, our stomach’s full of yummy Indian food. Marc and Michele were experimenting with different camera settings whilst taking photos of the town at night.

That night we decided to do a bit of exercise, so we got up early in the morning so that we could walk up the small but steep hill to the temple just behind the hotel before it got too hot. On the way up we finally saw a peacock up close (and heard several more). At the top the hill it was nice and fresh and we had a nice view of the town, also there was still some mist sitting over the town giving it a mystical appearance.

Our next stop after Pushkar was Bundi, a town about 6 hours by bus south of Pushkar. We grabbed another tourist like bus to Ajmer which unfortunately had a flat tyre on the way, but we did not despair because the driver took off the wheel and pushed it into a tyre shop that we had just stopped in front of and got the tyre patched up and back on the bus within 30 mins. After finally reaching the bus station we found the bus the bundi and we were instructed to tie our bags to the roof (which we were a little worried about!). After we lugged our bags up there and tied them on with every bit of string we had we got on the bus.

Jacqui fought for a row of seats so that the three of us could sit together, Marc was sitting in between Michele and Jacqui. A woman in the row in front turned around and was looking at Marc, he said something to her and she laughed (but she didn’t understand English) and that the beginning of the next 4 hours….

The woman in front was travelling with one of her sons and one of her daughters. Her son spoke a little English and ended up being the translator (although he didn’t speak a lot either!). They were from a small town called Tonk (which was apparently very beautiful – of course). Right from the beginning the woman was trying to show Marc her daughter, except her daughter was very shy and kept pulling her scarf further down over her face. Then they started showing Marc a picture of the girl that the son had on his mobile phone. They were really proud of her.

After some difficulty we managed to explain that Michele was a friend and that Jacqui was Marc’s girlfriend She looked a bit disappointed to find out Marc was not single. She really liked Marc’s dark hair and beard and offered him some betelnut to chew. He was too polite and took some and started chewing, he found it pretty disgusting (very sweet and had a strong flavour and made the mouth salivate a lot). After about 5 mins he managed to discretely spit it out and threw it out the window.

Next the woman started teaching Marc a drinking song which went something like “toom baraba toom”. However, singing was not enough and she insisted that Marc do the actions as well (which was that of swinging a bottle around the head and taking a huge swig). Marc was a very good sport and soon other people on the bus were looking around at the entertaining situation. In turn, they wanted to hear a French song, Michele suggested “Lac du Conemarra” a really cheesy super French song. As Michele and Marc were singing Jacqui was clapping and they were getting faster and faster, we realised that the whole bus were looking and laughing at us. It was extremely funny! An hour before we arrived at their stop they invited us to come to their village in what we suspect was an attempt to realise their plan…that they would get Marc drunk with the toom baraba toom song and then marry him off to their daughter before he knew what was going on! We took their address and politely said thank you very much but that we didn’t have a lot of time left in India (which was true) and that we wouldn’t be able to come to their village. This went on for some time more and we were started to get tired from the constant harassment. At one point Marc started to pretend to be asleep (even though in this bus sleep was not possible) so that they would start to leave him alone. A while after we arrived at the stop where they were disembarking and we all said our goodbyes with plenty of smiles and the three of us continued our journey in peace for another hour or so.

Jaipur (the first time...)

qui001 — Thu, 2 Apr 2009 18:31:00 GMT

We arrived in the busy train station of Jaipur super early, it was 5am and we had not had much sleep. After a couple of chai, we took a rickshaw to the hotel where we were meeting Michele and we crashed out for a while before having a nice breakfast on the veranda. We had a chill out morning waiting for Michele to arrive from Delhi at 2pm. Half an hour before Michele arrived Jacquie started to have ants in her pants and when she arrived at the hotel it was a explosion of joy. We went into town to have a quick lunch before visiting a little of Jaipur. We went to a restaurant in which the kitchen was closing in minutes so they served us food quite fast but we stayed a while chatting whilst Michele experienced her first Indian curry.

Michele needed to check her email so we went in search of an internet café. We found one owned by an Indian guy who was taking a French course and he was really pleased to speak in French to Marc while Jacquie and Michele were checking their email. This guy was really funny, he was laughing at all Marc’s bad jokes. He used to teach in a school but he just stopped and opened an internet café instead and he was also taking French courses. He spoke 4 languages, Hindi, English, French and also Sanskrit (a dead language) and he had started to write a book on about the meaning of life (he had written 3 pages!).

After that we wanted to buy a bottle of rum, some coconut milk and pineapple juice to make a nice pinacolada but a change in the licensing laws meant the off licenses were closed. The internet guy was really helpful for this mission, he told us where we could buy buy the most important bit, the rum J, then we found the coconut milk in a supermarket and we ordered some fresh pineapple jus at the hotel.

Back at the hotel we had a few snacks and our pina colada. We had a nice evening in the veranda chatting about our trip and the 7 weeks around the world that Michele had just started. We looked at lonely planet over our glasses of rum and decided to take a trip to Pushkar, then we crashed out to be ready for the next morning.

Jaislamer

qui001 — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:28:00 GMT

The overnight train journey was quite rough. We were woken up several time by the super loud train horn, at one point we thought that the train driver had fallen asleep on the horn! Our allocated bunks were really small and then Marc had to change it during the night in order to straighten his legs. The bunks were just next to the door so we had the light on all the night. We got on at midnight and arrived at 6pm with out lots of sleep.

And then we experience the best hotel of Jaisalmer. A tuc-tuc driver was waiting us in front of the door of the train with a sign with our names written on it so we jump into the rickshaw and took us to our new home. The Killa Bhavan hotel was simply amazing, using the wall of the fort. It’s a beautifully restored haveli owned by a French fashion designer with excellent taste, antic wooden furniture, plumps silk cushions, wall hanging carpet, windows sits balcony etc. Our room was in a bastion on the fort wall so the room is round with a window on the town and on the palace.

We fell asleep for a couple of hours before having a nice breakfast on the windows seat. We decided after our nice rest to go for a little walk around the fort. The fort is stunning, it is a grand building of pinkish yellow sandstone sitting on top of a small hill that rises directly our of the desert. The little winding cobbled roads take you past many wonderfully detailed, carved havelis and many people still live inside its walls. As we were walking around , people had started to gather in the main square of the fort just outside the place gates. A local guy, holding a reed instrument a bit like an oboe told us (without using English) that the maharaja was coming at 5pm and there would be a festival with music and a procession of the maharaja on a horse to the lake. It was about 4 o’clock so we decided to hang around to see the maharaja of Jaisalmer! As we waited more and more people came. A large band of drummers arrived and started to entertain people with fast paced (and frenzied at times!) bangra- type drumming. Camels dressed in fabulous colours and mirrors arrived. Horses decked in a similar manner also arrived. The boy scouts and the bagpipers came. Many women holding small children dressed in their finest sari’s appeared as well as plenty of tourists and regular people. After a long wait the maharaja turned up fashionably late in his shiny silver jeep at 6pm and went into the palace. We waited again to see him come out in full glory to start the procession to the lake. Just before the maharaja came out, the brought an almost lifesize doll/statue of a women dressed a colourful sari. This idol was placed on the head of a lady who’s job it was to carry it, she was (fortunately!) also helped by 4 guys. Next the maharaja came and we was made to sit on a very excited fine white horse that kept pawing the ground looking like it was about to go into a battle frenzy! The maharaja did not look very comfortable on this horse at all! He had one hand on the reigns and one hand grabbing the horse’s main trying to stay on its back as it danced sideways or refused to walk at all. With the maharaja installed, the full procession took off down the street and we ran back to our room for a fantastic view of the procession leaving the fort walls. Atter all the excitement had passed we decided to go out to a nice restaurant for dinner. We went down into a main square in the town center to a restaurant called Saffron, the same place that Marc’s dad had stayed when he visited Jaisalmer in October. It was a beautiful old house with a nice courtyard with a fountain inside. We had a delicious and extremely filling dinner outside to the sound of some Rajasthani music. As we finished dinner one of the small boys from the drumming group got Marc up to dance some kind of Man’s rajasthani dance! It was excellent, and Jacqui was wishing that she had the camera. After we returned to the hotel, we went up to the lovely rooftop garden and sat (sorry lay!) on a comfy seat and looked at the stars and the bats flying far above. Then it was time for 18 degree air con and a good nights sleep :D

The next day we had a lie-in in this beautiful hotel, the staff brought us the breakfast on the lovely veranda. Afterwards, we walked to the lake trough the town below the fort. The town is built with the same sandstone as the fort which gives the impression that the town is part of the desert. Arriving to the artificial lake we were not surprised to see it almost empty. They were a couple of temples in the water and few other one should be surrounded by the lake. Around the lake we could see sandstone building and a kind of amphitheatre along the side of the lake. We sat for a while on the steps of the amphitheatre to appreciate the view of the fort rising out of the desert and at this moment an entire Indian family (at least 10 people) rented a couple of pedalos to go around the only temple in the water, they seemed to really enjoy that moment.

We asked to the hotel for a place to by some jewellery and instead of recommending a shop they recommended to go to a family business run inside a haveli. We followed the recommendation and went by tuc-tuc in the back streets of the town. The shop is in a typical Jaisalmer haveli with lots of carving on the balcony and around the windows. We went inside and followed the stairs down to the basement to arrive in the “caverne d’Alibaba” for any women on this earth. The room was sizable with jewellery was dripping from the wall, piles of antique silver on a coffee table and lots of other ornaments all around the room. We looked on walls to see the jewellery collection and after while the tradesman came and offer to show us his collection the day after, we schedule a 3 hours appointment for the next morning (but t see the entire collection you need to have 3 full days at least). Afterwards we were quite interest to see the French fashion designer’s shop (the owner of the hotel), so we went through the narrow streets to the Gandhi chowk (main square) where the killa shop (that we renamed the killa credit card shop) was.

We spent a good few hours going through everything inside, from multicoloured scarves to silk curtains. We saw many beautiful items that we could imagine sell for plenty of money back in france. We saw a lovely curtain in gold and blue that we just couldn’t leave behind (even though we have no idea what to do with it!). After burning the credit card we got a neat discount on our purchases since we were staying in the affiliated hotel. A French lady came in (that we had previously seen in the jewelry shop also) and she said to us, “When you come here you’re going to spend all your money, but you will look very pretty afterwards!”.

After a hard day’s shopping we retired to the hotel for afternoon tea on the veranda (our favourite spot). To make the most of the nice surroundings we decided to have dinner at the hotel that evening. Only was option was on the menu: vegetarian Rajasthani thali several little dishes of different veg curries, chapatti bread, rice and dessert. MIAM MIAM. Although Marc is an enthusiastic carnivore, he was watering at the mouth over these vegetables. It was the best thali (and probably the best food) we had eaten in India so far. The desert was to die for, it was a carrot halva (a mix of grated carrot cooked in milk with cashew nuts and cardamom). All this was finished by the lovely surroundings; we were eating, alone by candlelight, on the rooftop garden which was the top of a bastion of the fort. Oh Yes. We went to bed early so that we could get up and go for our three hour jewellery session at 9.30am.

We were up and out the hotel right on time the next morning and started our second jewellery session with a cup of strong masala tea. On the white floor cushions he emptied heavy bag upon heavy bag of silver bangles, bracelets in Victorian English style, earrings, necklaces of precious and semi precious stones, tribal jewellery and anklets. It was truly astonishing. He also explained to us that jewellery was an integral part of local custom. At least three basic pieces, a head piece for the forehead, a necklace and a nose piece with a chain to the ear, are needed as part of the dowry for marriage, otherwise- no marriage! When a match for marriage is made, astrologers are consulted to check that a good match has been made. He will also tell the people their birthstone, and people will only wear those stones and no other since an incorrect stone will not offer them “protection”.

The tradesman also told us that in September there is a very auspicious day for getting married and many, many tribes people pass through Jaisalmer and come to his shop to buy wedding jewellery for this occasion. All the collection is laid out on cushions for all of September and each family is given half an hour to make their selection. He will be open long hours each day selling and trading with the people. He said it is an exhausting time and after its all finished they close the shop for one month to have a rest.

After burning some MORE cash (killa hotel, killa shop and killa jewellery!) we went back to the fort to visit the palace. For the first time we took an audio guide (it was free hehe!!). The fort was built in the 11century, it’s the second oldest in Rajasthan after Chittor. The site of the fort was founded by a Maharaja walking in the desert, Shiva appeared to him and threw the top of a hill a disc and a spring appeared, then Shiva told the Maharaja that one of his descendents was going to be the Maharaja of this place. A few centuries later the prophecy was realised, a fort was built on the top of the hill and his grandson became the Maharaja of Jaisalmer. As the fort is in the desert, it was built to maximize water, there is a complex drainage system in order to lose as little water as possible. Rain and waste water was collected by the drains and were stored in a huge water tank in the basement of the fort. Unfortunately over the years the fort has been badly damaged and increasing tourism does not help. Water damage is a real problem because now in Jaisalmer it is everywhere, in every house, in every hotel, in every restaurant etc. and the fort was not built to accommodate that much water. In the old days women used to walk miles to fetch a pot of water that would last them for 1 day for cooking, washing and bathing. This is quite different to the volume of waste water from hotels and restaurants. A few organisations have started to address the problem and the government has just started to get involved. The fort is a place with a lot of history many wars, many coronations of Maharajas, love stories, degradation and renewal.

Jaisalmer witnessed three Jauhars (mass suicide by burning) instead of being conquered they chose to commit mass suicide. The women would put on their finest clothes and walk into the fire as the men rode out for their last battle until death.

The palace itself was a beautifully carved from pinky yellow stone. It was very cool inside despite the desert heat. It had several highly decorated rooms with paintings, tiles, window seats and small balconies.

We were a little sad to be leaving Jaisalmer as we really enjoyed staying in this romantic town but we were looking forward to meeting Michele in Jaipur the next day. So we jumped on the train to Jaipur in the early evening, it was a bit of a painful journey because we didn’t get any food until 11pm and it was 12 midnight by the time we got to bed and we had to wake up at 4am to get off at Jaipur.

Bikaner

qui001 — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 18:23:00 GMT

We arrived the night in Bickaner after a journey train of 8 hours. As usual when we descended from the train a crowd of tuc-tuc drivers asked us if we wanted a ride for our hotel, but our hotel was quite close to the train station so we walked for 5 minutes and arrived in our pre-booked hotel- nice and easy J. It was a really nice haveli with nice and clean room. On the way to the hotel , opposite the train station, we saw a brand spanking new Europe-style Indian fast food restaurant selling south Indian, north Indian, veg (of course) burgers and pizza miam miam :P We went here several times just to eat (masala!) pizza.

The next morning we decided to go for a camel safari in the desert. We called an agency to see if it was possible to book on in the same day, fortunately for us it was not the busy season so they could organize our trip in the desert for the afternoon “No problem!”. Waiting for our appointment with the tuc-tuc we went for a walk in the town to visit a bit. Bikaner is not a tourist town and many of the shop keepers were wearing unfriendly faces but at least it meant no hassle or pressure to buy. We tried a few local sweets, which had no idea what it was called, but it was very tasty and very sweet- of course! We also walked into the material area of the market which was in a little road, at the entry an arch with lot of detailed carving. The road was full of shops and each vendor had their material, saris and daputa (scarves) hanging outside for everyone to see.

At two o’clock we returned to the hotel to catch our tuc tuc to the desert! On the way we stopped to pick up our guide and we drove for an hour out of town to meet our camel man and his young apprentice. Waiting us were two camels, a cart full of blankets, food and water, our cool camel man who spoke several words of English: “OK?” “OK!” and “OK.”(He spoke more camel than English).

One camel was our “chameau char” (camel cart), he was 10 years old and quite well behaved. The other camel was to ride, he was only 4 years old (they live until around 25 years old) and he still had a lot to learn. As camels (with one hump) are notoriously uncomfortable to ride, we took turns to ride on the camel or to sit on the cart. The young camel was always looking for something to play with or to bite. He bit the cardboard box containing the water bottles (but he didn’t like the taste so he spat it out!) he tried to eat a water bottle, he bit the cart that was in front of him, he was continuously trying to bite through his reigns, and he was afraid of trucks! He also had a cold and kept sneezing all over the young guy who tried to control his reigns. He complained to sit down, he complained to stand up, he tried to find his own way along the road, camels are quite stubborn animals! He did, however, understand the language of “the stick”. Every time he was naughty he would get a smack on the neck with a stick and he knew it was coming! The trip was really peaceful and quiet. We left behind the noise of the towns. Sitting on the camel or on the cart staring out into the sandy landscape was very relaxing and we could see some wildlife too such as antelope, desert foxes, bee eater birds etc. The landscape was certainly desert but it was not rolling sand dunes, there were some bushes and the occasional tree, sometimes a small mud hut or a tractor. We stopped for the night on top of a dune with a nice view of the sunset, although it was a little cloudy. The wind was picking up too and we found that quickly everything was completely covered in sand.

After the sun went down the guide made a fire from dried camel dung and small branches that he had collected earlier and proceeded to cook us a dinner of vegetables, rice, chapatti and … sand. It was tasty, even if a little crunchy. After dinner (8.30pm) it was time for bed (because what else are you going to do in the desert with no lights!) so they took out some blankets from the cart and we made our bed for the night in the sand, looking up at the stars. We fell as sleep quickly as it was very comfy and nice and quiet J. We slept very soundly, at first, then what we were hoping would not happen,. happened.

It started to rain.

In the desert.

After some rusting around and some unintelligible grunting from the camel man, they produced a waterproof cover from the cart and fixed it over the top of the cart to make a little tent underneath. They woke us up and we crawled under along with the guide, the camel man his young apprentice and a stray dog (but fortunately no camels!). There was not a lot of space and Marc kept hitting his head on the top of the cart. We passed another couple of fitful hours of sleep until dawn when we were woken up by the camel man giving us a hot cup of chai. In the morning, because of the rain the night before, the landscape was foggy so we could only just see a few trees shrouded in fog. After some dodgy toast butter jam and some more tea we continued our camel trek. A couple of hours later we arrived in a small village and stopped at the house of the camel man. His house consisted of four round mud and dung (cow shit) houses with a straw roves around a central open floor. It was very well kept and clean and inside the mud/shit houses it was really fresh and cool- far cheaper and more effective than concrete. Inside the houses there were some traditional decorations, wall hanging and some family photos and a hand loom for spinning textiles. Whilst we were drinking ANOTHER chai, the camel man had a shower (outside with a bucket of water) and changed his lungi (traditional cloth trousers) and we were on the road again.

About an hour later we stopped for lunch in a nearby house (some friends of the camel man). As we were waiting for the guide to cook our food, we watched one of the girls of the house paint a picture of several women and children holding hands in bright pink on the white wash wall. It was part of women’s festival that was taking place the next day. After lunch we were invited to lie down to have a nap in a sort of ‘rest room’ with 3 string beds inside a mud/shit house. After our little nap, we made the last part of our trip. On our way we past a (look up on internet) of female camels with young. A little further down the road, the camel man started saying something a pulled the cart off the road. We headed into the bush near to something lying on the ground. As we got closer we saw it was a female camel who had just given birth. We went close and we saw the baby camel trying to get to its feet, his legs didn’t seem to fit his body! It was really amazing to see. Both mother and baby seemed to be doing fine so we went on our way and left them to it. We finished our trip around 5 and after a quick goodbye to the camel man and his apprentice; we went with the guide to the Rat Temple.

This was a very strange experience! It is a temple dedicated to rats (for reason that we haven’t found out yet!). People come from far and wide to see this place. People were queuing to get inside the temple to worship the holy rats. There were rats EVERYWHERE! there were holes in the wall spewing rats, the floor was moving.. with rats. The rats are given large bowls of sweet milk and Indian sweets litter the floor. This is rat heaven- oh to be a rat in this rat temple! There was a rat garden full of branches and things to play with and more food and more sweet milk. Rats were all over the fence to the rat garden, some falling asleep perched in the most precarious positions. It was insane (and also quite smelly and extremely dirty- euk!).

After half an hour of buses we came back in Bickaner with the guide. He organized a rickshaw to the hotel. At the hotel we ask with puppy dog eyes to have a shower in one of their room for answer we had a nice smile and a head wobble for a yes. We clean ourselves of sweat sand and sun cream.

After having diner in our favourite place in Bickaner we waited ages for the train to Jasisalmer.

Gallery: India

qui001 — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 22:48:00 GMT

Jodhpur

qui001 — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 18:27:00 GMT

Jodhpur was under the sign of “rest”. We had a hotel with a nice roof top view of the old town and the fort. We wandered around the narrow street flanked by old typical 2 story buildings. This created lots of shad and made the streets cool as we were hidden of the midday sun. Using the Clock Tower as a landmark we navigated through the winding streets and we turned a corner we found the vibrant and colour full market place. On the market place we went into a “Hotel” thinking we could have a lunch but it was a “lassi bar” with only 2 choices in the menu, lassi and lassi.

The fort of Kumbalgarh and the temple of Ranakpur

qui001 — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 23:27:00 GMT

The journey to Kumbalgarh was really nice, Rais stopped in few nice places to take some pictures of camels, a cow powered irrigation system to distribute water from a well etc. When we arrived at our destination, as usual, we were surprised of the place we found ourselves, it was at the entry of the fort in a little guest house called Lucky. The owner was a little Indian guy with an approximate English, his house which was below the guest house, was a bit rough. There was no ensuite toilet (it was downstairs, disgusting and full of flies) and no shower in the bathroom. We wanted to do a little trek in the wild life sanctuary of Kumbalgarh so Rais organised everything for us (bag drop, trek, lunch etc) so during one hour he was talking with the owner to arrange everything and in the end he told to the owner to take care of us really well because we were like his brother and sister. Rais left and we had a veg lunch prepared by the owner. After lunch the owner insisted that we come, with his family, to a festival in a town 8 km from the hotel but we had already decided to go to the fort and the idea of going on a motorbike with 2 Indians on Indian road was not very appealing, so we went to the fort just next door. During the walk Jacquie started to have a stomach ache, so we visited to fort quickly. This fort was built by Maharaja Kumba in the 15 century on the top of a huge hill, and the fortification was 32 km length with 360 temples and 700 canon bunkers, it was the most important fort after Chittor. It was taken only one time by X(Look his name on internet)X Akbar plus 2 other armies but they managed to hold it for only 2 days.

We came back at the guest house Jacquie rested and we decided to cancel the trek for the day after. The owner came back from the festival and asked what we wanted to have for dinner. After a little chat with Marc the owner presented him to all his family, he had a wife, 4 daughters and 1 little boy. He called the restaurant Lucky after one of his daughters. He invited us to have dinner in his house, but it was not a really good idea for the stomach of Jacquie. Later the owner knocked on the door and asked us to come and watch them cooking and to take pictures of them. But it was a trap to get us to eat with them! We came downstairs to his home, the outdoor kitchen consisted of a concrete hearth moulded out of the concrete floor. We were not really sure of the food (because of Jacquie’s stomach) but it was the only food we could find. The dinner was really good, they cooked it without much spice for us first and when we finished they added spoonfuls of chilly powder to the pot. Throughout the meal they continuously asked us if we wanted more rice, chicken chapatti, vegetable, and we tried to eat as much as we could mot to offend them. When they made the food spicy they forced us to try it even though we said no several time. Whilst having dinner the dog started to growl and the guy say:” panther! panther!”, but it’s not a threat for the village. After we finished eating we made some excuses to go back upstairs.

The next morning after a good sleep, the owner arranged a taxi for us to Ranakpur for 9.30am. The car was a brand new jeep of his “best friend”. The trip was really bumpy but the scenery was really nice, dry bushland interspersed with wheat and corn fields. People were waving at us on seeing the brand new jeep. Arriving at the temple, after few head bumps (India is too small for Marc!), we left our rucksack in the temple office. We had a traditional Rajasthan lunch (really tasty) for 20 RPS, and then we could visit the largest Jain temple in India. It is a beautiful building with numerous small spires and one large central one, on the roof. The style was quite different from that of the other temples (predominantly Hindu temples) that we had seen. The building was made from milky white marble (with a few features in sandstone for a contrasting colour) and the entire structure was covered in intricate carvings. Inside the building are 1444 pillars, all delicately carved with demons, dancing girls and gods, with no two pillars being the same. One pillar was built deliberately bent because only gods (and not humans) can achieve perfection. The deities were depicted in a much simpler manner than in Hindu temples. The god would be plainly, but skilfully carved, as sitting cross legged with a serene smile on his face. Interestingly, the eyes of the gods were made from beaten silver and glass (to show the inner beauty of the deity) and reflected the light so it almost looked like the gods eyes were glowing in the dark, staring at you. To sit inside certainly gave a feeling of peace, space and harmony. After a peaceful few hours at the temple, we jumped on a series of busses to Johdpur.

Udaipur

qui001 — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 23:24:00 GMT

We arrived in Udaipur after an overnight train and found a really nice tuc-tuc driver when we came out the station. He advised us to go to one of his friends places (of course), a haveli (old style house with a courtyard) guest house that looked out onto the water. The building had white washed stone walls painted with blue flowers in places. Our room had three windows one with a lovely window seat looking out towards the main town, the bathing Ghats and the lake. Upstairs there was a lovely terrace with tables and chairs and also some huge bed-like structures filled with pillows where we spent many nice hours chilling out, placing dice games or watching the James Bond movie, Octapussy that was filmed here in Udaipur. We were very tired from our long journey so the first day in Udaipur was a dedicated “chill out day”. We spent most of our time upstairs on the roof terrace or having a little nap. We also went for a walk around town which became longer than we expected as we got totally lost in the small winding cobbled streets of the town. At the same time the sky started to become grey then dark, a little strom was coming on Udaipur (1^st day in the desert and it’s raining …). We were asking our way to people but the information they gave to us were never really clear, we were just going in circles under the rain. At the end we managed to find the way to the bridge that we were looking so hard to find. We came back to the hotel sitting on the roof top restaurant playing dice drinking beer while the storm raged around us. Then we just crashed until the next day.

The next morning we went to do a boat ride around the lake, we could see the Lake Palace (Palace in the James Bond movie Octopussy), the Jagmadir Palace and of the City Palace from close up and we took a few photos of these grand buildings. After that and paying to get inside the City Palace and the hotel inside we could reach the marble pool (also in Octopussy) of the hotel for the price of 300RPS each. We have a swim and relax in this nice posh and expensive (169 RPS instead of 25 RPS for a can of pespi) location. After backing in the sun we decided to visit the museum of the City palace net door. This palace it’s the biggest palace of Rajasthan. Luckily there were signs to show us the way around because it look like a labyrinth of corridors, courtyard and stairs. We saw many rooms with different colours, mirrors, glass, painting etc… at the end our favourite was a quite courtyard hidden on the top floor. The night at the hotel we watch the James Bond movies Octopussy (because neither of us had seen it), and we could see in the movie all the places we had visited during the day.

Another last start the next day found us still at the hotel at midday. We then set out to take some photos of an unexplored part of town then we set off to the ayudervic treatment centre for a vigorous Indian head massage followed shortly by a piece of cake. Next we went to a grand old haveli (old house with courtyard) and associated museum. There, we saw the largest turban in the world!!!! It was pretty huge, a little saggy and very pink! As haveli’s are traditionally associated with performing arts, later that day we went to see a Rajasthani folk dance show held in one of the courtyards. This was amazing!!! the first act was a traditional dance where two girls, covered in mini symbols made rhythms by clashing together the symbols on their toes, legs, arm and fingers. the second act was no less skilful, a girl performed a dance involving much spinning whilst balancing a metal pot with fire on her head. the third act was a more classic solo performance of a gay folk dance. Fourth was a puppet show where the puppeteer had us all laughing as the puppet gigged about throwing and catching his own head. Sixth was a fun folk dance performed by six women in brightly covered dresses and last of all, and le final, was the most impressive. A small squat lady balanced ten pots on her head as she moved around the dance floor performing various tricks such as picking up a scarf from the floor and dancing on (and with!) a metal plate. It was a great show, we really enjoy it.

The next day we went to the largest fort in Asia (it is possible to see it from space), in the town of Chittorgarh. This fort was built in the 8^th century and has been taken only 3 times in history. The first time it was taken by the king of Delhi because he wanted the beautiful wife of the king’s uncle, Padmini. The second time it was the sultan of Gujarat who took the fort to increase his territory. The third and last time was X(look in internet)X Akbar. After each defeat all the women committed juahar (Need to search on internet) it means 13 000 women and the same of men plus all the soldiers died during the fight, even the beautiful Padmini committed jauhar after the siege. This fort is an amazing building 4km long and 1,5km wide. In the middle there is a high tower on which you can see all the area around the fort, we could really imagine the sentinel at the top of the tower looking around for an enemy coming. Inside the fort there are 3 temples on each side of the fort, from the ruins of which we could easily imagine the town and lots of gardens with a few lakes that the government is renovating. People still live inside the fort, at the entry there are the few road bordered with houses and shops.

Our driver for the day was really cool, his name was Rais. He was always ready for a chat and he was keen to learn a few new French phrases from Marc. We had some really fun Indian music on the way there and back, the kind that makes you tap your leg and you can’t help it! Rais was telling us about his boss – the guy who owned the hotel. He makes a lot of money from his venture and is building a new hotel nearby. Rais is paid a salary monthly of 2500 rupees (about 42 euros), although the cost for us to hire his driving services for the day was 1500 rupees, which is more than half his salary! So his boss certainly makes a tidy profit, but as Rais said, there are not many good jobs in India “so what to do?”. He prefers to spend his money and “live well, dress nicely, dress my daughter nicely- not dirty clothes- and enjoy the life otherwise what do you have? Nothing”.

After a hot day in the sun we went for lunch in an AC restaurant and afterwards our cool driver took us to a local sweetshop to eat rassamali (milk puddings in milk sauce) and rassgul (a very sticky sweet Rajasthani dessert). After this little sweet break Rais wanted us to meet his sister who lives in Chittorgarh, and then we headed back Udaipur. That night we wanted to chill out in front of another movie but some tourists had already booked the TV to watch Octopussy so we saw it a second time.

The next day we left Udaipur for our next destination and it was Rais our taxi driverJ for a second time.

Agra the Taj Mahal and the Fort

qui001 — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:23:00 GMT

It was really a struggle to get out of bed early the next day, but rise early we must to avoid the crowds at the Taj Mahal. After walking 2 minutes to the East gate (stopping on the way for a much needed caffeine boost!) we arrived inside the gardens of the Taj. It was barely 7am and the morning mist was just leaving. The gardens were sublime, calm and with a warm glow from the young sun of the approaching day. We walked slowly around the gardens, enjoying the reflection of the Taj in the lovely water ways, savouring the beauty of the place before approaching the Taj itself. To go on the Taj itself you must first remove your shoes. It was a beautiful sensation to walk around on the cool and smooth marble in bare feet. The inside of the Taj itself was not that amazing but the building itself is, of course, very grand and the detail of the carving and the inlay is just amazing. The inside the mosque next to the Taj was beautifully decorated with fine white designs of flowers on red stone.

In the afternoon, before we took the train for Udaipur, we visited the Agra fort. At the beginning we were not very enthusiastic to go there, it was just to fill the afternoon, but once inside we were really surprised by the scale of the buildings and the detail. Each area was really different. At the beginning we walked through a fortification, with imposing red sandstone building. After we entered the palace area, we had a magnificence view of the river and the Taj Mahal, with courtyards with green gardens and lots of flowers. We saw the black throne of the Taj (Shah jahan (Shah jagan ;) )) and opposite was a white throne. The famous Shish Mahal (room of mirrors) was closed but we looked through the glass and saw thousands of little mirrors stuck to the walls reflecting the sun light. Through a little door we entered the hall of public audiences where the emperor would listen to his people on his little balcony. We wanted to visit the mosque of the fort but unfortunately it was closed, we could only visit the tiny mosque next door. All around the fort there was a moat, which centuries ago would have been filled with hungry crocodiles to keep out invaders. This fort was built by X(look in internet)X Akbar. Shah Jahan, his grand son built the Taj Mahal.

We passed the end of the afternoon to wait the train and of course it was 30 minutes late.

In Agra we had a really nice time. It was not as busy as we thought it would be, but we the place absolutely stank, not just a bad smell but a toxic gas in which you don’t want to breathe because it makes you cough.

23 hrs on the train

qui001 — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:22:00 GMT

The trip from Bombay to Agra was the longest yet but we were travelling in style in the 2AC class. We each had a bunk with a little curtain that we could close. We crashed into bed and woke up the next morning to quite different scenery. After a random breakfast of biscuits and omellete we sat about trying to think of things to do to fill our time on the train. We were looking for somewhere to plug in the computer to at least give us something to do, we managed to find a spot for half and hour or so but that was all. The remainder of the time we wither spent either asleep or reading. Unfortunately, the food on this train was not as good as some of the previous train food we had, and we ended up eating the same thing for lunch as well as dinner. We arrived late in Agra and went to our booked hotel which turned out to be in a really cool location 1 minutes walk from the Taj Mahal. We went up to the roof top garden for a view of the famous building and we had the place to ourselves for an hour before retiring to bed for an early start to avoid meeting the tour buses at the Taj.

Mumbai

qui001 — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 23:20:00 GMT

According to lonely planet, the Goa - Mumbai train is supposed to be one of the most beautiful train journeys in India and it’s true it was quite amazing. We thought that we would be able see the sea from the train but during the entire trip a hill was between the train and the seaside. Even though the scenery was not what we were expecting it was very green, we passed many rivers that were about to open into estuaries on reaching the sea. At one point we followed a river for almost 1 hour. Although it was dark we knew when we were arriving in Bombay because we could see a multitude of lights from the window of the train. We went to the first hotel we could find (which was pretty posh!) got cable internet in the room and crashed out.

After a lazy start the next day, we went for a wander around the Colaba area, passing lots of grand old colonial buildings and open squares. Our aimless wanderings found us standing outside our favourite shop – Fabindia J. So of course we had to go inside and buy lots of nice things for not a lot of money! (unfortunately we then had to carry all the stuff around for the next few days- fiouf!!). We found a really cool place to eat lunch then we spent ages on the internet desperately trying to book train tickets to travel in Rajasthan. On the way to the train station, we grabbed a taxi (in rush hour!!) which drove us along the huge sea front promenade (of several km) as the sun was setting over the fantastic Bombay skyline. After an hour and half we arrived at the other side of town at the train station, which was a complete dump and neither of liked it one bit. Unfortunately we had a two and a half hour wait for our train L

We were sitting around feeling bored and a little uncomfortable, when suddenly an elderly gentleman wearing a large turban and traditional dress. He sat down in front of us a started happily talking away to us in Punjabi. We kept telling him in English that we didn’t understand what he was saying but that didn’t stop him! He just kept on talking and asking us questions! Everyone around was looking at us, smiling at the situation. A young guy sitting nearby came to our aid and started acting a translator. It turned out the young guy (called Paresh) was from the Gujarat and only understood a little punjabi but he could translate what the old man was saying in Hindi. We spent a hilarious half an hour with the four of us, and he insisted on Marc writing his name and telephone number and address in France (Even though if he were to call Marc neither person would have a clue what the other was saying!!). Paresh was really good sport and he laughing a lot with us. One message that we managed to understand was the old man had thought that we looked bored waiting for our train so he had come to brighten up our time, (which he succeeded in doing very well!) and make half an hour pass much faster.

Just after our new friends left, Jacqui went off to find a toilet and Marc was accosted by some young guys asking if he had sunglasses or money. It was a shame to have a not so nice experience directly follow such a nice one.

Finally our train to Agra arrived, we thankfully climbed on and got settled for our longest train journey yet – 23hrs!!!

Goa

qui001 — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 23:19:00 GMT

Arriving at the at the train station at 6am in Magaon, we waited for 2 hours on the platform, even the next train came before ours. This trip was hot and long, as we didn’t book a seat in AC (air conditioning). Jacquie had her first stomach problem, so she slept for most of the journey. With us there were a middle age Indian couple. The lady pointed out to us every time there was something to see outside, a nice view of the jungle, a waterfall etc... Later in the trip she tried to talk to us with her limited English and in the end resorted to giving us a picture of her favourite guru: Baba-ji. This excellent passport sized photo that she produced from her purse looked like a cutting from a magazine out of the 1980s. A dark skinned man wearing an all in one orange robe sporting a huge fuzzy afro. Excellent! When we arrived in Goa the hills were covered by a thick jungle and we could imagine the train was like a big snake winding its way along the mountain side, in and out of tunnels. We arrived in Madgaon at night, checked in to an hotel (with AC!) and rested to be ready for the next day. Madgaon was a fun place, quite laid back with a very different vibe from the other Indian cities we had visited. Many buildings had a distinct Portuguese colonial feel and there was a nice well kept public garden in the centre of town. Walking around we managed to find several interesting cakes to eat, including the famous and unique Bebinca. A layered eggy cake that combines aspects of Indian and Portuguese cooking to create a very tasty an unique dessert. Jacqui is now looking for a recipe J

We started the day by a dry toast breakfast and set off on an adventure. We saw on the lonely planet a little ferry that we could take to cross a river, so we decided take the bus to Cavalossim (a nice touristy town with a beach with white sand) and walked to the ferry. However, the ferry was not as close as we thought and the river was not that big ether! We followed the road to the ferry to the end at the river, we finally saw the ferry which was used by local pedestrians, motorbikes and cars, not so exiting, but the river was really beautiful and peaceful and we saw the local fishermen swimming next to their boats. At the other side of the river we asked a guy with a posh car for a lift to a nearby town but instead the guy took us a bit further to a bus stop near a fruit street vendor in town. We waited 5 minutes and a guy with bad English (and worse teeth!) started to speak to us to tell us several times that the bus for Cabo de Rama was at 12.30pm at the corner of the road and also it was Sunday so few buses were operating. Another bus arrived and we decided to take this one instead because it stopped at the “bus station” in a nearby town (or more several buses parked next to each other) and we still could take our bus for Cabo de Rama from there. On the bus we saw some local Goan women who had a very different style to Indian ladies. Instead of the red and while chains of flowers in the hair they wore a red rose. Instead of saris they wore a blouse with flowers and a severe pencil skirt – all very Portuguese. At the bus station we bought few things to eat (some fried potatoes) for lunch and waited for the next bus. Near the shop some guys were playing a strange game, it was on a table but it looked like a cross between snooker and curling. They had to slide a “puck” to hit the other player’s pieces and to pot them into a pocket in the corner of the table.

The bus finally arrived and we finally made it to our destination 30 minutes later. Cabo de Rama is an old ruined Portuguese fort on a cliff sticking out into the sea. We went around the fort for one and a half hours seeing local people snorkelling off the rocks and we had a stunning view of the sea and Goan coastline. In the fort wall at one point there was a little passage down to a little beach, we decided to go down and investigate and put our feet in the hot blue sea. The driver of the last bus told us that another bus came at 3pm to Palolem, our next destination, but 3pm arrived and… no bus. We decided to go to the bar beside to ask, we met a nice French couple and two completely drunk guys saying that we were like their children and we were a nice people etc etc, In the end we discovered that Sunday in Goa is worse than france! There were no buses in Cabo de Rama for Palolem. The owner of the bar called a taxi for us (probably her husband…) to go to our next destination and as could be expected it was quite expensive 600rps (10euro). It was still a fun drive through the countryside listening to Goan music on Root FM stopping to give someone’s grandma a lift on the way!

Finally we managed to get to the beach and to have a little swim in sea full of tourists (western and local). It was crazy to see the local girls swimming fully clothed in sari’s next to the western girls in tiny bikinis! At the end of the day we needed to take the bus to Magaon for the night, but Sunday in Goa it’s difficult to move, the last bus to go back was at 5.30pm and we missed it by 30 minutes. So we went to the bus station of a nearby town and waited for the last bus of the day which supposed to arrive at 6.30 pm but as usual it was late of 30 minutes and full of people.

What a day!

The next day we took the train from Madgaon to Mumbai, it’s a 12 hours journey.

Hampi and Hospet

qui001 — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 23:18:00 GMT

The overnight train journey, our first in India, was pretty uneventful and we both managed to get some (interrupted) sleep. About one hour in to the journey, Marc was already fast asleep when the ticket controller came round and switched on all the lights to wake everyone, Jacquie sat up to show the ticket but Marc stayed fast asleep with his mouth open (giggle!). We woke up before dawn just as we arrived in Hospet.

Wandering out of the train station, quite dazed, we went to the first lodge we could find making our way through a throng of pushy tuc-tuc and taxi drivers. We had a long hard day ahead. We went to the bus station, met a German girl from Heidelberg, took the bus and arrived in Hampi, all before 9am. Arriving in Hampi the landscape was really surreal with huge boulders on the top of the hills, and temples scattered everywhere, some built in the rock. We decided to have breakfast, at last, so we had enough energy to explore the vast ruins (covering approximately 7km). On the way to the Vitaya temple we found stairs and followed them and ended up at a large Nandi statue (bigger than the one in Mysore). We saw an amazing collection of well preserved temples and ruins. In some places we felt like we were in an Indiana Jones movie, entering a small underground maze without light, using the light from Marc’s camera to see. In the afternoon we decided to rent bicycles to visit the royal centre which was 4 km from the main bazaar. After half way round, the chain on Marc’s bike broke L We had to continue by foot for the rest of the long hot, sweaty, afternoon. The Royal Centre was really amazing- it is really well kept and the garden is very lush. The last thing we saw was the elephant stables, Jacquie was waiting for that all day. The stable comprised of 11 stalls each one was 10 meters high was as wide as two trucks. Jacquie quite fancied having one in her garden :P. At the end of the day we tried to get a refund because of the bike, but the only thing we managed to get out of the guy was some water and soap for Marc to wash his oily hands. On our return to hospet we had a funny incident involving the local bus service. The bus was full of passengers and bags as we left Hampi bus station. Soon after leaving the bus was struggling to make it to the top of a hill. It went slower and slower and finally it stopped altogether. Every time he revved the engine to start up the hill again the bus would go backwards, nearer and nearer the line of cars behind. Everyone on the bus was told to get out and walk to the top of the hill whilst the bus took a second run up to the hill. We all climbed in again when the bus finally made it to the top (third time lucky!).

Exhausted we returned to Hospet and tried to hide from the world for a while.We bought lots of fruit (and a free fresh jalebi given by a street vendor) to eat in the room. Unfortunately our presence in the hotel attracted the attention of the young sons of the hotel owner who were trying to look underneath the room door and through the window, the mission to hide failed.

The next day we had an early morning train to Goa at 5.15am.

We had great experience wondering around the fabulous ruins of Hampi imagining days gone by, but we were certainly exhausted and dehydrated by the end of the day, also starting to tire of the constant questions and harassment.

Bangalore

qui001 — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 23:17:00 GMT

On the train to Bangalore from Mysore we spent gazing out the window looking at the sky as many impressive and dark rain clouds were pushing their way into the blue sky. Arriving in Bangalore our first mission was to locate the cloakroom and deposit our bags for a few hours whilst we waiting for our connecting train to Hospet (Hampi). After dumping our stuff we left station we started to fell some drops of rain, the first rain that we have seen in India. To pass the time we found a posh hotel with a garden roof top restaurant to have dinner, we shortly discovered that they served cocktails and they had a VERY good pina colada J. Three hours, some nice food and four pina coladas later, we returned to the train station and began our first over night train journey.

Mysore

qui001 — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 23:15:00 GMT

The next morning brought the beginning of our long trip north, to Rajasthan. We trudged down to the bus station in ooty and jumped on the first bus to Mysore. We were pleasantly surprised by the comfy cushioned seats and several (welcome) toilet stops along the way. It was an enjoyable bus ride through the hills and also a national park where we saw elephants in the wild from the bus window. As we descended, the temperature started rising again and when we reached Mysore in mid afternoon, it was back to the high twenties again. Mysore is not a big town and we quickly found our way around. The massive spires of the palace act as a good landmark for tourists lost in the winding streets near the market. After dumping our bags at the lodge we were off to see the palace (which we subsequently renamed as Marc’s toilet). The grounds of the palace were massive, as befits such a majestic building. Four turrets stand at the corners of the fortifying walls and long avenues lined with trees point towards the palace from each direction. Entering the palace grounds we went to look at several of the elaborate (but not multicoloured!) temples before entering the palace itself. After removing our shoes and locking away our camera and paying for the privilege (unfortunately no photos are allowed to be taken inside) we toured the inside of the palace. We entered and walked along the ground floor corridor which was a maze of carved stone pillars with a lovely lotus type design on the ceiling. Then we passed the central courtyard which is guarded by two huge bronze tigers. We entered the first hall which had a beautiful mosaic tile floor and old paintings of the days of the British Raj adorning the walls. After a short flight of very beautiful marble stairs, we arrived in the stunning mezzanine floor which is open to the air, as the front of the building is built in the style of an amphitheatre so that the king and his consort could look down upon his subjects and his elephant festivals brought before him in the palace grounds. Another maze of intricately carved pillars but this time the ceiling was a kaleidoscope of colours and mirrors. After the open mezzanine floor we re-entered the main building by way of the most luxurious and gaudy room yet. Gold was heavily used everywhere in this room, for pillars, for the ceiling and the doors were of carved wood and solid silver. Stained glass windows in the ceiling in blue and pink added to the multicoloured theme. This was the last room (and certainly the most extravagant) open to the public before we were once again returned to midday heat outside. A quick tour around the maze of streets in Mysore brought us back to the hotel for a little rest before dinner, then we crashed out ready to climb down from Chamundin Hill the next morning. Chamundin Hill is one of the 8 most holiest hills in south India. Pilgrims from all over come to climb the 1000 + steps, passing a giant stone nandi (stone bull) before reaching the temple on the top of the hill. As we felt we were not really in need of a spiritual boost that day, we took the bus to the top of the hill and walked down the steps, navigating our way past several hindu priests who looking for donations in return for the little puja (prayer), a flower and a red dot on the forehead. We also had to contend with the temple monkeys, who spied that we had just bought a bunch of 6 bananas… one particularly cheeky monkey, marched right up to Jacqui and grabbed her trousers then her scarf, pulling it off, in an attempt to get the bananas. The locals were laughing and started shouting, “thow one banana then he will leave you alone!!”. Marc took a banana and threw it a few meters away, but the money looked at the single banana and then back at the bunch that Jacqui was carrying. He knew what he wanted. He came back for another try but Jacqui was not about to surrender her lunch that easily and the monkey received a firm kick to the chest when he tried to climb on her again. Slightly abashed the monkey started to get the message and after placing a road barrier (and Marc!) between herself and the monkey Jacqui quickly scoffed her bananas. After walking to the bottom of the hill, we sat and chilled out amongst some old stone houses and watched the monkeys play around in the trees for half an hour before heading back to town in a tuc tuc to stock up on food for our overnight train journey to Bangalore.

Ooty via Coimbatore

qui001 — Mon, 9 Mar 2009 23:08:00 GMT

In order to catch the ‘toy train’ to Ooty we had to spend a night in Coimbatore, a rather industrial town in the north of Tamil Nadu. After a relatively quick train journey from Cochi to Coimbatore we had an afternoon to spare in town. Being a large centre for textiles Jacqui got excited about going to look in some silk and sari shops. After several attempts we found the right road and wandered around several huge department stores full of multicoloured material and pushy sales assistants who wanted to sell us wedding saris (the most expensive kind of course! for 3,500 rupees each). We had an early start (5.30am train!) from Coimbatore the next morning to get to Metapuyalam on time for the train to Ooty at 7.30 am. Even after our super early start, we were still exited to be catching the Ooty train. The train ride from Metapuyalam to Ooty has been given world heritage status as this historic tea route is operated by an old fashioned steam engine. We arrived in Metapuyalam at dawn and immediately we saw the little steam train that would be puffing its way up the mountain. We had seats in first class right at the front of the train. We had an excellent view since the steam engine was actually at the back of the train pushing rather than at the front pulling. On the way up we had stunning views of the Nilgiri hills and valleys, of jungle and tea plantations, rivers and animals. We had to stop regularly, about once an hour, for the engine to be refilled with water. About half way, at one water/tea stop in a small village in the mountains, we got off the train to find we were surrounded by hungry monkeys. They obviously had learnt that train = food. These cheeky monkeys were very bold, stealing food from people’s hands whilst they weren’t looking, and even drinking left over tea in cups left standing on the platform.

The train ride was very romantic and a lot of fun but it was also painfully slow at times, and the train would often stop and wait to build up steam and momentum before continuing on its way. When we arrived in Ooty (after 5 hours + 1.30 delay) we staggered off the train into a cool mountain climate. Ooty used to be a hill station that was established by the British in order to escape the heat of the south. The government that used to operate from Chennai would spend the hot months of the year in the hills in Ooty instead (hence the nicknamed ‘snooty ooty!’). We found a really nice room in the YWCA (as opposed to the YMCA!) in a little bungalow with a nice view of the racecourse. Jacqui was very excited that it was cold enough to wear a jumper J. The first evening, wandering around Ooty, we found a really nice fresh produce market sporting neat piles of fruit and veg amongst many other things. The produce looked so good that we bought loads of fruit and decided to have a little picnic dinner at home to try them all. We had avocado, mango, banana, jungle apple (?) and a fruit that looked like a kiwi fruit but was brown inside and tasted just like brown sugar! We had an early night and the next day we went trekking. After a big breakfast we set off for Doda Betta, the highest peak in south India, around 1,200 m. The first part of the trek took us through Ooty town. First stop was the famous rose garden. However, as we discovered when we arrived, that March is not the season for the roses to be in bloom. After a quick appraisal of the muddy flower beds peppered with crusty bushes we decided it wasn’t worth the 20 rupee entry fee and we continued on our way. A few blocks further down the street we walked past a cricket ground. We might have walked past it if it hadn’t been for the noise. We stopped to see what was going on, there were surprisingly few people but they were very excited. In the stalls a group of about 30 girls all wearing the same purple and pink sari were neatly seated in regular rows. This was the Indian version of cheerleaders. Every time someone scored a point, a drum would sound over the tannoy along with a long and complicated explanation of the change in tactics and some cheering from the purple sari girls. Carrying on up the hill we went old Ooty where we saw many small and neat multicoloured houses and green fields of carrot, neatly layered into the side of the hill. The next stop was the tea factory which was about half way up the hill. We stopped to eat our packed lunch with a great view of the valley (and we could still hear the cricket match going on down below!). After lunch we took a short tour of the tea factory, learning about the history of tea in general as well as its history in India. We also saw how the tea leaves were prepared and dried, sorted, cut turned and curled and the equipment that was used during this process. At the end of the tour, the most important part- a nice fresh (and free!) cup of masala tea J followed by a quick stop in the chocolate factory next door. Fully recharged, we marched up the rest of the hill, spotting a giant squirrel and wild jungle fowl. After a last push we made it to the top of the hill. First of all we were greeted with a car park, then a line of street vendors on the path up to the entrance of dodda beta. We finally made it to the top and the panoramic look out point to find the view was totally obscured by think jungle fog. It was like we were sitting on an island of land floating in clouds. At least it was refreshingly cold, which was a welcome relief from the sticky heat of kerala. After our long days walk, we settled back into our little bungalow for a restful evening.

Fort Cochin

qui001 — Tue, 3 Mar 2009 00:57:00 GMT

The trip to Cochin was a quite short, the bus landed us at the gate of Ernakalum, but it was not our final destination, we were going to Fort Cohcin. Fort Cochin it’s a place which was colonised by Dutch and Portuguese with a really strong Jewish influence.

After we arrived in Fort Cochin we found a nice place to stay with a nice room and a clean bathroom YOUHOU!! \o/ \o/. We left our rucksack at the hotel and went to visit a bit of the town. The seaside was not really far and we could see fishermen were pulling up chinese fishing nets with plenty of tourists helping. Near these chinese nets there were some little shops with the catch of the day. We went a bit further in a calmer place near the sea and sat on rock on the beach but the smell of the rubbish on the beach make us move quickly. On the way of the restaurant we found a local bar to have drinks before the diner, they had some Kingfisher beer and some nice brawn rhum.

The next morning we had a medley fruits for breakfast and we designated the day as a chill out day.

The day after we went to a place called jew town, it’s the Jewish part of Fort Cochin. In this area there are many antique shops which contained amazing artefacts, from huge brass cows to entire carved wooden walls. It was fun and interesting to wander through these dust filled warehouses. Jew town was also an interesting mix of Indian and jewish culture, with many little coloured buildings and also a synagogue. We spent a relaxing hour over lunch being the only customers in a breezy and beautifully furnished colonial style restaurant. Later that day we returned to the hotel to pack up all our new purchases ready to send back home.

The next day we went to the Indian part of Cochin, which is called Ernakulam. We went to do a bit of shopping and to see a bit more than just the touristy part of Fort Cochin. We found a huge market full of fruit shops, vegetable shops, meats, sweets and plenty of other thins that we had no idea what they were. We also found a shop called Allapat, a jewellery shop, and decided to see what a really posh jewellery shop is like. Most jewellery shops in India sell almost only gold or diamonds. All four walls were adorned with copious amounts of gold, all different kinds of fine and intricate gold necklaces, gold bracelets, and gold earrings. It was a paradise for the Indian woman.

After we got back Marc went on skype whilst Jacquie went to pick up another salwa kameez at the tailors in the Indian part part of town. It was a substantial walk away from the tourist area Jacquie was wearing some western clothes on the way there several men said hello (which is unusual when Marc is there), she passed a street corner where a old guys was selling fruits he said something like “malalalblablayalamamalyallalannayam” with a frown on his face. When she arrived at the tailors the lady was really excited to show Jacquie her creation and the daughter came to see the western girl trying on the salwa kameez. It was really nice it was fitting really well and the tailor made a lot of effort, all for the price of £1.20. On the way out the shop wearing the salwa kameez the next door neighbour said:”NICE DRESS!!”. Walking back she passed the old man again and this time he say something like “malalalblablayalamamalyallalannayam” with a smile on his face and Jacquie was laughing. Going out for a drink before the diner, Marc wears one of the shopping of the day a lungi a popular traditional south-indian long-short skirt for man, it look like a 2 metres tea towel rapt around the hip.

We decided to chill out the last day.

The next destination was Ooty a little town in the mountay of Tamil Nadou.

This several days in Fort Cochin were really nice because we needed to relax and stay more than 2 days in the same place. We enjoy the Colonial architecture and peacefulness of this town, no tuc-tuc blowing the horn each second but always full of people trying to sell you something.