Travel stories 22nd March

Hi folks,

happy Easter to you all.

We moved on from Agra to Jaipur which our guide book told us would be dispappointing but we have really enjoyed it. There is an obligatory castle and fort and the city is painted pink. We spent a few days here and chilled out, spending several days in a quiet little guest house. Garry has identified some possibilities for Arco here (see pic).

We then moved on to Mount Abu - a mountain village where we could do some spectacular hill walking. We saw a crocodile, snake, bear pooh and a mongoose. Next was Jodhpur (guess what they invented?). This city is painted blue and also has a fort and a palace. For some reason, least known to us we opted for a camel safari in a place called Jaisalmer. Why would anyone want to sit on a camel for hours in the desert with the sun shining down relentlessly? We then slept open air under the stars after having curry and chapatis cooked over a pile of sticks. (you will be pleased to know we beat the indians in 'who can stand on one leg and put their nose on the floor" competition)

The best thing was waking up in the morning and trying to identify the footprints round the "bed"!!

Garry woke early and has found a new skill - rounding up camels (see pic).

We then returned to Jaipur for the elephant festival. This was a parade of elephants, camels, horses, ox, dancers, musicians etc. Garry and Mark entered the tug of war with an elephant competition. It was close but Nelly won, however they did recieve a prize and maybe on Indian tv. The large lady in the photo may have been an entrant in the festival, but we think she likes chappattis like we do.

This was on 21st March. 22nd March was "holi" day. This is the colour festival which is very childish and consists of everyone throwing different coloured paint at each other. The indians obviously love this festival and it was like our Christmas or New years eve when everyone goes round wishing each other "happy holi".We are still stained pink and blue but another 6 showers and it may wear off. Recognise anyone? (see pic).

Hope nothing goes wrong with our teeth as this photo shows the local dentist with his instruments at the side of the road.

We are having a couple of quiet days and fly down to Goa on Tuesday as we work our way over to see Carolyn and Farhad in Sri Lanka.

Next installment to follow soon.

13th March 2008

We are now a few days on from the last update. Since then we have been to Varanasi, the Holy city where you can reach enlightenment! Not sure we are now enlightened, but we had a good laugh. We went to watch the night ceremony, where they light candles and send them down the Ganges, but we found it more entertaining watching a mummy cow take a pooh on it's calf's head. That is some pat on the head. The next entertainment was watching tourists slip in the shit! Not very religious we know but very philosophical especially when it was the fat americans! There is something really funny watching people slip in cow pooh!

On the way to Agra we missed our stop off the train so enjoyed the delights of travelling by bus. In Agra we saw the amazing Taj Mahal. You've all seen it on telly or on photographs, but if you can get to India, the real thing is worth the flight alone!

We then continued to Jaipur and managed to get off at the right stop this time. We chilled out here in a lovely little guest house with its own garden and "apple juice" supply aka beer! We stayed around 5 days before continuing west to Mount Abu where we have done some trekking.

Big change to our plans but we are really excited and when you haven't got a plan it doesn't matter in the slightest. Alison's sister, Carolyn is getting married in Sri Lanka in the third week of April. Yippee!! So we have decided to head south sooner than originally planned. We are staying in Rajastan for the elephant festival and the colour festival (when you all throw paint and water at each other) then heading down to the south west and Kerala. Probably staying three weeks in Kerala before moving on to Sri Lanka for this years biggest gig!

This is us on our way doing a Max and Paddy. "Don't know where we're going, got no way of knowing, we're on the road to nowhere". We've even got the pig with us but this one is a little cleaner than the one in Max and Paddy. Did some washing in Varanasi but couldn't get a spot on the Ganges. Attached is the spin cycle Indian style.

update from Varanasi - Holy City on the Ganges

So far so good, we had three days in Delhi and managed not to get ripped off or robbed. Delhi is not a terrible place at all, we have really enjoyed it. As you can imagine, the food has been fab, including the fried potatoes and dahl off the street vendors. Only 35p for both of us! Beer is not sold in many restauarants so we have had to make a special effort sourcing this, but managed as you would imagine!
We travelled from Delhi to Varanasi on an overnight train. Garry slept in the fridge next to the aircon. We were a little worried about the safety of our luggage, but a nice burly man with a semi automatic machine gun was looking after security, so again no problems there!
We were up at the crack of dawn this morning, to see the locals having a nice bath and wash their clothes in the Ganges and although we brought our goggles with us, we resisted the temptation to join them.
Tomorrow, we may go and see the festival on the Ganges at 6.30 pm. We leave at 9.30pm on another overnight train to Agra (must try to get better seats this time). The learning curve has been quite steep but levelling off. We are still having trouble putting photographs on the blog, so will practice in a few days time.
Hope you are all keeping well.
Alison and Garry.