Hello my little Woozies and Greetings from Bombay,
G and I have been on the road for over a week now and so, as we near the end of our second “country”, I thought it was about time for me to get in touch and provide a bit of an update on all the exciting adventures we have been having so far ... would not want you to think I am neglecting you all!
We got off to a great start from London, and contrary to all gleeful predications that I would not have learnt from my Kenya mistakes and would once again be carrying everything plus the kitchen sink with me, my luggage weighed in at under 10kg :) yay, I was so proud of myself, although it does mean that I only have five tops and thre trousers to wear and even now, ten days into a three-month trip am distinctly bored of them, hmmm ...
Anyway, as you may remember, we started our round-the-world trip in Helsinki, which was a bit of a shock to the system since it was super cold and meant that we had to wear all our clothes on top of each other to keep warm! But that did not stop us from exploring the city, including its nightlife with dinner at the famous Seahorse Restaurant, which was mentioned as one of the 10-best-dining experiences in the world by the NY Times food critic, and then a pub crawl which ended with far too may G&Ts (me) and vodaks (G, he plans to drink “local booze” wherever we are) in our hotel bar (Thanks for the recommendation, Pia). The next morning we were both feeling distinctly sorry for ourselves but after fresh shrimp soup in the Old Food Market we felt well enough to go for a very brisk walk along the windy sea front before heading out to the airport and our red eye flight to Delhi.
We arrived in Delhi at 4am the next morning and, still somewhat blurry-eyed (a red eye flight after a night of heavy drinking and too little sleep the night before was a tough even for me) clambered into a tuck-tuck to the other side of the city to catch a train straight on to Agra and the Taj Mahal. The train ride itself was uneventful, aside from that fact that as tourists we were quite the attraction and that seat numbers obviously count for nothing ... at the time it did all seem quite adventurous but after our overnight train ride to Udaipur, this one was really nothing to write home about, but more about that later. We got to Delhi and checked into our very nice hotel (Thanks for the recommendation, Lex) and after a shower and a disco nap felt human enough to brave the tourist trail and set of straight for Fatepur Sikri, a palace complex 40km outside of Agra that was abandoned because of lack of water. It was every bit as special as the guide book has promised, even if the tourist toots immediately identified us as “fresh meat” and hounded us relentlessly .... The complex in particularly interesting since the ruler for whom it was built had three wives – one Hindu, one Muslim, one Christian – and each had her own palace within the complex, each designed with her religion in mind. The evening we spent on one of the many roof terraces with a view of the Taj Mahal, eating some delicious Indian food while at the same time being eaten alive by mosquitoes.
The next morning we got up super early and headed out to the Taj Mahal before the swarms of tourists from Delhi arrived ... we had a view of the Taj from our hotel room but I was a little disappointed because it seemed so small, but I was totally blown away when I did then see it up close ...the marble really is translucent and changes its shading as the sunlight changes, it started off being nearly see-through, only a misty shape against the sun, then turned golden as the sun rose and by mid-day was snow white in a bright blue sky. One rather entertaining element of our Taj visit was that I got to feel like a super star, because of the very large number of people who wanted to have their picture taken with me ... at one stage I found myself surrounded by about 20 teenage boys, all clamoring to stand next to me while others took the picture :) We then also visited the baby Taj, a somewhat smaller and older mausoleum with similarly intricate carving and inlays as the big Taj, but a little off the beaten track and so a lot less crowded which made it a really nice experience. After a swim in the hotel pool we got ourselves to the station ready for our overnight train to Delhi ...
OMG, despite very detailed instructions on what seats I should book us, I managed to book us into the ultimate cattle class which meant sharing a tiny cabin with ostensible 9 people, only in our case it was 11, not sure what happened there, no air con, no bin, no windows, no bedding and 9 very hostile people, G was worried I was going to burst out in tears, little princess that I am (just for the record, I did not!!!!!!) ...... Faye, I have learned my lesson well, from now on each email you send me with instructions will be read three times at least and then printed off (on recycled paper) and then the relevant sections will be highlighted.
Anyway, I survived the train ride and we made it to Udaipur, the city by the lake (only, after little monsoon rain, the lake was really more like a muddy puddle) in one piece, checked into the beautiful, heritage Haveli Kankarwa (Thanks for the recommendation, Faye) and had breakfast on a sunny terrace overlooking the lake and the famous Lake View Hotel, setting of James Bond Octupussy. We treated ourselves to an ayurvedic (spelling) massage, which included a holistic diagnosis in which I was told that I have on leg shorter than the other and suffer from stress ... hmmm ... and then spent the rest of the day wandering the streets of Udaipur and visiting the spectacular City Palace, which was just like I had imagined an Indian palace to be – lots of courtyards with exotic green plants and fountains, spacious rooms with mirrors and paintings on the wall and beautifully carved balconies overlooking the city below and courtyards within the palace complex. Much like in European palaces, each ruler wanted to add his little touch to the place, so bits were added every few years, but the overall effect is very cohesive and at this stage this palace was the highlight of the trip for me. In the evening, we had dinner on yet another roof top and indulged in one of the key Udaipur experiences ... watching Udaipur in a DVD of Octopussy, very amusing! The next few days in Udaipur were spent with visits to the Monsoon Palace, a derelict palace high up in the hills above Udaipur from where you can seen the most amazing sunset over the hills of Udaipur; to Ahar, the ruler's grave yard full of ornately carved cenotaph's; a cookery class in which we learnt to make my favorite dhal, G's favourite chipatis, paneer and all sorts of other delicious things; a local dance performance, featuring a middle-aged lady with ten pots on her head walking over glass shards; a lazy afternoon by a roof top pool with views over the city, the lake (aka the muddle puddle) and the many smaller palaces and havelis that are scattered around the town.
Sadly I was struck down with a case of “indigestible peas” on our last night in Udaipur, which meant that our drive to Jodhpur (Thanks for arranging that, Jane) the next day was not as much fun as it could have been. In any case, the drive took us through the mountains surrounding Udaipur and passed Kumbhalgarh, an amazing fort in the middle of the mountains (not even mentioned in the infamous Lonely Planet!!!!!! I felt like a real backpacker, venturing off the beaten track ... only I was being chauffeured around by a driver ...), part of a 33km long wall that was some sort of defence system. We also made a stop in Ranakhpur, a Jain temple complex, again in the middle of nowwhere, with 1444 totally different pillars carved out of the snow white marble that is used for almost all palaces and temples in Rajasthan; an utterly amazing sight to see, even more so considering that the marble was brought to the site by elephants from many miles away. We made it to Jodhpur by 9pm, by which stage I could all but collapse in bed.
The good news was that after a good night sleep I was all well again and ready to explore Jopdhur, which was described as being smelly and hot but we found to be neither. First stop on our tourist itinerary was the utterly amazing, medieval fort Merangarh, which is every bit as mystical and amazing as the name sounds (personally I feel Peter Jackson should have given it a staring role in his Lord of the Rings Triolgy, but that's just my take on the matter). The palace, again adapted and added to by each ruler, was even more ornate and intricate than all the other places we have seen and made very accessible by an utterly amazing audio guide which gave us some historical insight and background to the palace and the rulers along with lots of really entertaining anecdotes about what life was like in the palaces along with some local music, fantastic! The narrator was also very entertaining, speaking in this super posh English voice with a slight Indian twang to it ...what a combo! We then walked down from the fort into the town and bazaar, winding our way through the blue houses for which Jodhpur is famous, with me getting my hands hennaed on the way, not quite what I was planing to have done but I was accosted by this little old couple and my hands were painted before I could even say stop :) The next day G and I went on a mad shopping spree, spending hours (and some serious cash) in two “antiques shops” buying some bed spreads, a side board, a wooden box, some sort of storage implement (not sure about that, G choose it), a tin elephant and two over-life-size silver peacocks which have been named Ethel and Dougie ... all the loot will be shipped to the flat in London, so we are told, and should be there by the time we get home .... watch this space! And then all of a sudden our time in Rajasthan was over and we were back on a sleeper train - rebooked to 2tier AC, thank god! An all-together different experience, including a pillow, sheets, a blanket, windows, AC and a full dinner for 20p. Delightful, finally I understand why everyone raves about trains in India. From Delhi, we flew straight on to Bombay where we are now enjoying being in a real home (Thanks for having us, Jane and Len) and will spend the next few days sightseeing before heading off to Thailand and Cambodia mid next week.
Ok, little woos, I have gone on long enough now and G wants to use the laptop ... so I had better say bye! I will try to give regular, comprehensive updates like this but will also try to send you individual responses whenever you email me ...if that isn't an incentive!!!!
Take care and happy Easter egg hunting!!!
Love and Kisses
Cx (aka, die gleine Lala xxx)
G and I have been on the road for over a week now and so, as we near the end of our second “country”, I thought it was about time for me to get in touch and provide a bit of an update on all the exciting adventures we have been having so far ... would not want you to think I am neglecting you all!
We got off to a great start from London, and contrary to all gleeful predications that I would not have learnt from my Kenya mistakes and would once again be carrying everything plus the kitchen sink with me, my luggage weighed in at under 10kg :) yay, I was so proud of myself, although it does mean that I only have five tops and thre trousers to wear and even now, ten days into a three-month trip am distinctly bored of them, hmmm ...
Anyway, as you may remember, we started our round-the-world trip in Helsinki, which was a bit of a shock to the system since it was super cold and meant that we had to wear all our clothes on top of each other to keep warm! But that did not stop us from exploring the city, including its nightlife with dinner at the famous Seahorse Restaurant, which was mentioned as one of the 10-best-dining experiences in the world by the NY Times food critic, and then a pub crawl which ended with far too may G&Ts (me) and vodaks (G, he plans to drink “local booze” wherever we are) in our hotel bar (Thanks for the recommendation, Pia). The next morning we were both feeling distinctly sorry for ourselves but after fresh shrimp soup in the Old Food Market we felt well enough to go for a very brisk walk along the windy sea front before heading out to the airport and our red eye flight to Delhi.
We arrived in Delhi at 4am the next morning and, still somewhat blurry-eyed (a red eye flight after a night of heavy drinking and too little sleep the night before was a tough even for me) clambered into a tuck-tuck to the other side of the city to catch a train straight on to Agra and the Taj Mahal. The train ride itself was uneventful, aside from that fact that as tourists we were quite the attraction and that seat numbers obviously count for nothing ... at the time it did all seem quite adventurous but after our overnight train ride to Udaipur, this one was really nothing to write home about, but more about that later. We got to Delhi and checked into our very nice hotel (Thanks for the recommendation, Lex) and after a shower and a disco nap felt human enough to brave the tourist trail and set of straight for Fatepur Sikri, a palace complex 40km outside of Agra that was abandoned because of lack of water. It was every bit as special as the guide book has promised, even if the tourist toots immediately identified us as “fresh meat” and hounded us relentlessly .... The complex in particularly interesting since the ruler for whom it was built had three wives – one Hindu, one Muslim, one Christian – and each had her own palace within the complex, each designed with her religion in mind. The evening we spent on one of the many roof terraces with a view of the Taj Mahal, eating some delicious Indian food while at the same time being eaten alive by mosquitoes.
The next morning we got up super early and headed out to the Taj Mahal before the swarms of tourists from Delhi arrived ... we had a view of the Taj from our hotel room but I was a little disappointed because it seemed so small, but I was totally blown away when I did then see it up close ...the marble really is translucent and changes its shading as the sunlight changes, it started off being nearly see-through, only a misty shape against the sun, then turned golden as the sun rose and by mid-day was snow white in a bright blue sky. One rather entertaining element of our Taj visit was that I got to feel like a super star, because of the very large number of people who wanted to have their picture taken with me ... at one stage I found myself surrounded by about 20 teenage boys, all clamoring to stand next to me while others took the picture :) We then also visited the baby Taj, a somewhat smaller and older mausoleum with similarly intricate carving and inlays as the big Taj, but a little off the beaten track and so a lot less crowded which made it a really nice experience. After a swim in the hotel pool we got ourselves to the station ready for our overnight train to Delhi ...
OMG, despite very detailed instructions on what seats I should book us, I managed to book us into the ultimate cattle class which meant sharing a tiny cabin with ostensible 9 people, only in our case it was 11, not sure what happened there, no air con, no bin, no windows, no bedding and 9 very hostile people, G was worried I was going to burst out in tears, little princess that I am (just for the record, I did not!!!!!!) ...... Faye, I have learned my lesson well, from now on each email you send me with instructions will be read three times at least and then printed off (on recycled paper) and then the relevant sections will be highlighted.
Anyway, I survived the train ride and we made it to Udaipur, the city by the lake (only, after little monsoon rain, the lake was really more like a muddy puddle) in one piece, checked into the beautiful, heritage Haveli Kankarwa (Thanks for the recommendation, Faye) and had breakfast on a sunny terrace overlooking the lake and the famous Lake View Hotel, setting of James Bond Octupussy. We treated ourselves to an ayurvedic (spelling) massage, which included a holistic diagnosis in which I was told that I have on leg shorter than the other and suffer from stress ... hmmm ... and then spent the rest of the day wandering the streets of Udaipur and visiting the spectacular City Palace, which was just like I had imagined an Indian palace to be – lots of courtyards with exotic green plants and fountains, spacious rooms with mirrors and paintings on the wall and beautifully carved balconies overlooking the city below and courtyards within the palace complex. Much like in European palaces, each ruler wanted to add his little touch to the place, so bits were added every few years, but the overall effect is very cohesive and at this stage this palace was the highlight of the trip for me. In the evening, we had dinner on yet another roof top and indulged in one of the key Udaipur experiences ... watching Udaipur in a DVD of Octopussy, very amusing! The next few days in Udaipur were spent with visits to the Monsoon Palace, a derelict palace high up in the hills above Udaipur from where you can seen the most amazing sunset over the hills of Udaipur; to Ahar, the ruler's grave yard full of ornately carved cenotaph's; a cookery class in which we learnt to make my favorite dhal, G's favourite chipatis, paneer and all sorts of other delicious things; a local dance performance, featuring a middle-aged lady with ten pots on her head walking over glass shards; a lazy afternoon by a roof top pool with views over the city, the lake (aka the muddle puddle) and the many smaller palaces and havelis that are scattered around the town.
Sadly I was struck down with a case of “indigestible peas” on our last night in Udaipur, which meant that our drive to Jodhpur (Thanks for arranging that, Jane) the next day was not as much fun as it could have been. In any case, the drive took us through the mountains surrounding Udaipur and passed Kumbhalgarh, an amazing fort in the middle of the mountains (not even mentioned in the infamous Lonely Planet!!!!!! I felt like a real backpacker, venturing off the beaten track ... only I was being chauffeured around by a driver ...), part of a 33km long wall that was some sort of defence system. We also made a stop in Ranakhpur, a Jain temple complex, again in the middle of nowwhere, with 1444 totally different pillars carved out of the snow white marble that is used for almost all palaces and temples in Rajasthan; an utterly amazing sight to see, even more so considering that the marble was brought to the site by elephants from many miles away. We made it to Jodhpur by 9pm, by which stage I could all but collapse in bed.
The good news was that after a good night sleep I was all well again and ready to explore Jopdhur, which was described as being smelly and hot but we found to be neither. First stop on our tourist itinerary was the utterly amazing, medieval fort Merangarh, which is every bit as mystical and amazing as the name sounds (personally I feel Peter Jackson should have given it a staring role in his Lord of the Rings Triolgy, but that's just my take on the matter). The palace, again adapted and added to by each ruler, was even more ornate and intricate than all the other places we have seen and made very accessible by an utterly amazing audio guide which gave us some historical insight and background to the palace and the rulers along with lots of really entertaining anecdotes about what life was like in the palaces along with some local music, fantastic! The narrator was also very entertaining, speaking in this super posh English voice with a slight Indian twang to it ...what a combo! We then walked down from the fort into the town and bazaar, winding our way through the blue houses for which Jodhpur is famous, with me getting my hands hennaed on the way, not quite what I was planing to have done but I was accosted by this little old couple and my hands were painted before I could even say stop :) The next day G and I went on a mad shopping spree, spending hours (and some serious cash) in two “antiques shops” buying some bed spreads, a side board, a wooden box, some sort of storage implement (not sure about that, G choose it), a tin elephant and two over-life-size silver peacocks which have been named Ethel and Dougie ... all the loot will be shipped to the flat in London, so we are told, and should be there by the time we get home .... watch this space! And then all of a sudden our time in Rajasthan was over and we were back on a sleeper train - rebooked to 2tier AC, thank god! An all-together different experience, including a pillow, sheets, a blanket, windows, AC and a full dinner for 20p. Delightful, finally I understand why everyone raves about trains in India. From Delhi, we flew straight on to Bombay where we are now enjoying being in a real home (Thanks for having us, Jane and Len) and will spend the next few days sightseeing before heading off to Thailand and Cambodia mid next week.
Ok, little woos, I have gone on long enough now and G wants to use the laptop ... so I had better say bye! I will try to give regular, comprehensive updates like this but will also try to send you individual responses whenever you email me ...if that isn't an incentive!!!!
Take care and happy Easter egg hunting!!!
Love and Kisses
Cx (aka, die gleine Lala xxx)
OMG! When you finally get here (US) not only are we going to have to go shopping (Catherine!) but also, you will be so bored! But we'll try to entertain. Can't wait for July. Lovely posting. xoxox Jess and Brian
ReplyDeleteSounds awesome! A lot more fun than my week, dodging the G20 rioters in London. Mind you, well done on adapting plans to dodge the redshirted rioters in Bangkok, I can confirm that Mum (that would be Mrs Late senior, I guess)is very relieved!
ReplyDeletebon route
Nigel
Hi Guys!
ReplyDeleteGreat blog and nice to see your adventures along the way! :) Greg - you should have taken Catherine back to Sri Lanka too, whilst you were out this way! ;)
Looking forward to seeing you in Japan and celebrating your birthday too here C!
Take care and keep blogging.
Love Chani.xx