India

FROM MY DIARY

Pushker 02/01/04

OK this is wonderful. We've had a 12 hour journey to get here yesterday (we though it would only take a couple of hours!) in a sleeper carriage sharing with some very sweet and talkative Indians. Our plan yesterday morning was to leave Delhi and go to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, but when I paid for our hotel room, I forgot to pick up our passports - and didn't realise until we were sitting on our train to Agra!. Luckily, the train hadn't left by then and so we jumped off, reclaimed our money for the tickets, got back to the hotel and retrieved our passports.
Not a clever thing to do.
But, the place we are in now is stunning, we are on a lake and last night when we arrived all we could hear was chanting and bells ringing outside.
We have a perfect lakeside view where we can see the beautiful buildings that are surrounding the lake and watch the religious people bathing in the holy water of the lake. We woke up this morning to see lots of people on the Ghats and ventured outside of the hotel (which is shaped almost like a castle!) and walked into the hustle and bustle of the market. The markets are so lively and colourful with so much food that I think I'm going to burst!. After dinner tonight, we went to a street vendor and tried the strangest thing. It was a leaf smeared with a red paste, then all these different things from pots were put onto it. It looked pretty interesting and also tasted it - almost toothpasty soapy herbal....humm.

When we were in Pushker, we took a walk up to the nearest monastery. It was an easy climb, once we found the path and we were both blessed up there, red dots on our foreheads and red bracelets on our wrists. We also did a camel trek around Pushker, an overnight trip. It was interesting, but uncomfortable and not really something that i would volunteer to do again!.

FROM MY DIARY

MANDU 12/01/04

We had a great day yesterday. We started off by meeting the French guy again that we met the day before and having breakfast in a lovely place with him. We had all hired bikes and wanted to ride. He wanted had already been where we wanted to go, so we went our separate ways after our stomachs were full. We went to BAZ BAHADURS, riding through small settlements and entered the area. The palace was constructed around 1509 so its pretty old. Palace and the views were wonderful. The building was very pretty looking with tons of archways and steps and domes. When we first arrived there we heard a lot of noise going on, the suddenly, we were surrounded by all these kids (look at the photos I've included). It was a large school group that were having a trip around there as well, and the teachers didn't seem to care that they were not paying attention to the place as all their attention was on us. The teachers were worse than the kids!. Everyone wanted to hold our hands, and take photos of us, I remember them leading us around and around this place (all off them) all trying to hold our hands, and lead us to the next place that would be good to take a picture of us!. They would not leave us alone, but it was so funny.. They were so excited by us that they just couldn't stop laughing and of course the laughing was so infectious. Eventually the teachers stepped in and told the kids to calm down and leave us alone, came next to us and we had another photo session with the teachers. Finally, they did leave, Maurice started exercising, while i sat and drew some pictures. We left the palace and walked up higher , up a long winding road to another building which was called Ruppmatis pavilion. The story goes that the last independent ruler in the palace and fell in love with a Hindi singer. He tempted her away from her famous career and to the pavilion he built in her honor.

Its not hard to see why she was tempted. The place is stunning. Its so high and you can see for miles and miles. Again more photos and on our way down, we almost had to run for our bikes as another school party were heading our way!.

FROM MY DIARY

MUMBAI 19/01/04

BOLLYWOOD HERE I COME!
Maurice woke me up early yesterday to tell me that the hotel was looking for a couple to be in Bollywood. AHHHHHHHHHHH!. This is what I really wanted to do in India and it's happened. So, we quickly dressed and found two other whities to join us and we were take to the film set by a guy from the production team. As soon as we arrived, I was put into a Nurse's uniform and given some socks and shoes and then we were in the studio!. I think I must have looked funny, as the socks were supposed to be knee highs, but generally Indians are a little smaller than me and the came just under my knees. Shoes had to be white so they provided me with some, but of course, Becci big foot couldn't fit them so I hobbled and wobbled all day. The first scene was in a coffee shop in a hospital, so Maurice and the other two had to mingle in the coffee shop while i had to walk past the actors. That was all I did all day, walk up and down the set. I was lucky though as I had the most to do out of us tourists. It would've been very boring otherwise. It was so interesting watching all the cast, the big stars were SO obviously the BIG STARS. The male stars liked to strut, sing and show off, while the females sat dead in the centre of the room, so that it was hard not to notice them and look stunning. It turned out that it wasn't a movie, but a TV show - India's longest running show (an Indian version of Eastenders?) and the recent plot was quite funny.

A woman falls in love with a man.They marry and suddenly he disappears out of the blue.

Years later, she admits to herself that she will never see him again and starts to live her life.She gets married to another guy.

They have a wonderful house and garden, but have to hire help. The gardener that they hire turns out to be her ex-husband.

He did not run away, he had an accident. Lost his memory and had to have plastic surgery. So even though they cant recogonise each other, they FEEL that it is somebody they know.

She divorces husband number two and marries husband number one again, without realising that its the same guy.

I'm pretty sure there's a moral in there somewhere (there usually is in story's in India) but I don't know where. Any ideas?.

CALANGUTE

We spent a long time in Calangute, Goa and made a lot of friends. Local expats, that owned different bars in Calangute, Banana Moon and 2 pak. Our days were filled with relaxing at the pool, beach or bar. Bliss.

We took a trip up to Ashvem, a place North in Goa that was so tranquil. We went with friends that we had made and stayed in these great beach huts on stilts. The day we arrived there we all explored a little and and played in the sea, and the evening was spent eating a wonderful meal of crackling pig and listening to some great music. The following day we all did our own exploring, one guy even made it to Arambol without realising, and I walked past a nudist beach. We passed thround Vagator beach on the way back to Calangute and all had great food at one of the restaurants there.

HAMPI

Hampi was my favorite place in India. A small, peaceful town with quite a few tourists, but a place where we could really get away from them if we wanted to. A real back packers area, but very relaxed and quiet. The town of Hampi has a huge temple in the middle and is surrounded by old palaces and ruins of temples from another age. We hired a bike from a local and spent a lot of time riding around. It was a perfect mode of transport there, as we were able to see much more than if we did not have it. We took it up out of the town and into this deserted area of ancient palaces and temple, admiring carvings and decorations still there. We also took the bike across the river on a small round boat made out of lots of vine leaves well stuck together! and explored on the other side of the river, passing such small villages, local life and local temples. Back in the town of Hampi, we had noticed an elephant around the wonderfully decorated Temple and had heard rumors that you could see it have a bath in the river. That evening when we came back from the other side of the river, we waited on the Ghats and eventually he came slowly down the steep stairs, looking as if he may tumble at any time. For roughly an hour he played and was scrubbed by his two keepers until he shone. The played and played, making Loud noises, shooting water everywhere and then slowly made his way out. We had come prepared with fruit for him and as he made his way up the stairs, we fed him the fruit and he blessed us both (by taking the fruit and kissing us on the forehead). We were blessed a few more times by the same elephant on other days. Who can resist getting a smooch from an elephant?.

AGRA

We finally arrived in Agra and decided that we wouldn't stay there long. After all the places that we had seen it just seemed such a shame to see a town so touristy as this one. We checked into a hotel, and met an English guy and went out to dinner with him. The food was not up to the standard that we had had in other, much poorer places and it was quite disappointing. The next day we saw the Taj Mahal and got out the same day. But before we left ..............

NOTES FROM MY DIARY

We decided to take a rickshaw from the town to the train station.. About 5 minutes into the journey, as we were going over a roundabout, a guy on a bicycle almost came out of nowhere and the rickshaw didn't have a chance to slow down, so we turned and toppled over, knocking him off his bike but not head on. Maurice came out the worst as he was on the side that the rickshaw landed on, plus we had the bags inbetween us. So he had me, the bags and the floor squashing him. He's got scratches and grazes, but nothing broken..phew!

After all the fussing that came after the crash we got another rickshaw to take us the rest of the way and went to the station. SLOWLY SLOWLY.

DELHI

We arrived back in Delhi, happy with our travels and still one week left to enjoy the rest. The day after we arrived, it was the festival of Holi, the festival of colour. We woke up and the streets were already COVERED in paint. The aim of the day is to stand up high somewhere and throw small (or big!) bags of paint at people who pass. The more daring (usually the street kids as its their only day in the year where being bad is good!) take to the streets and do the business there. When we were leaving the hotel, the manager warned us that it was not safe as a few people had had some things stolen from them on the streets. We went out for around 10 minutes and you can see how much they got me in that time...and where on my body. We spent the rest of the day relaxing on the rooftop, watching everything going on below us and getting the last of the sun before going back.

NOTES FROM MY DIARY

10/03/04

We've had a good two days worth of shopping to do, getting all the tack and useless stuff to fill up our bags and use the last of our rupees. Maurice has even bought a frying pan and a mouse trap. I really don't know why. So here we are on our flight back home. I can totally understand why people come here and never leave. I was very tempted.

THANK YOU INDIA! I'LL BE BACK!