Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Ed's Travels
Hello all.
It has been a while since my last enry in which i have beem very busy covering large distances and seeing loads. I think when i last wrote we were about to leave Udaipur for Jaipur. It was quite a painless nine hour journey to Jaipurand when we arrived we were met by the owner of the hotel that we were staying at which was very easy. The hotel is was a Heritage home and it was in a nice quiet part of the city, but at the same time not too far from everything. It aslo had the added advantage of a small pool which really did make a difference.
On our first full day we spent half the day orgainsing our travel and accomodation plans for the days ahead and then we ventured off to look arounf the city palace. It is situated in the old part of the city which was very busy and noisy.But we got there and hired a guide to show us around. Only a small part of the palace is open to the Public because the Marharaja of Jaipur still lives there with his family. It turned out that the day that we were there he happened to be in the main courtyard sighning pieces of artwork done by some local school children on some sort of art camp at the palace. So dad managed to introduce himself mentioning that Grandpa had been at school with him at Harrow. Understandably he could not remember there and then but he shook my hand and wished us well for the rest of our travels.
The next day we jumped on a tour bus that we had arranged the previos day, to take usto all the other sites of the city and a couple outsideof the city, most notably the Amber palace.It was a great way to fill the day and we saw everything Jaipur had to offer.
The next day we then hopped onto another bus for the slightly shorter 6 hour bus ride to Dehli. We had had a recomendation of a nice quiet place to stay so we had booked in there and it turned out to be a good base. A lot of people we had met had said that Dehli was a hole and really not very nice. But i have to say that it was quite pleasant compared to Mumbai.It is certainly much more of a Internaitional city. We only had 1 day there so we decided to hire a driver for the day to take us to the sights which are spread out over the vast city. We saw Ghandi lived the final days of his life and the spot where he was shot. We also visited his daughters house. We saw lotsof other things and it was a good day filled.
The following day we got our first train down to Agra. We spashed out a bit and went 1st class which cost us a grand total of 8 pounds each. We were served thermos' of tea and then cornflakes followed by some sort of veg curry which was all really nice and the first breakfast in India.It only took 2 hours to get to agra where we hoppedin a taxi for the shot journey to the hotle which had the added bobus af having a large garden with a large swimming pool. We settled in and then set off for the Taj Mahal.
It is a absolute joke here in india becasue we had to pay 750 rupees to get in each which is about 9 pounds whereas the Indians only pay 20 which is about 25p.we have found this at all the tourist sites and is absolute daylight robbery. Anyway we payed and hired a guide and went in. I have to say that when you first see it you do go WOW because it is absolutely stunning and much bigger than you think it is going to be. We took the customary photos and wandered around for a couple of hours before returning to the hotel to chill out next to the pool.
The following day we went to see the Agra fort which again it absolutely massive. The public can only view 25% of it becasue the rest is still used by the millitarybut it still took us a good couple of hours to wander around. It wasthen back to the hotel for more chilling by the pool soaking up the good weather. On our third and final day we got a taxi to a place outside Agra called Faitipur Sikri which a desserted city. It took about a hour to get out there and it was really nice when we got there because there was hardly anyone there which made a nice change. In the evening we got a sleeper train to Varanassi.
We arrived into Varanassiat about 7am and organised a taxi to take us around the city for a couple of hours in the afternoon. We visited lots of temples,but to be honest once you have seen one they are all the same. We alson organised a boat trip for the following morning to see the Ganges. so at 5 the next morning we made our way down to the Ganges where we boarded a row bout for a couple of hours.We went up and down looking a the people doing their washing and swimming in the various Ghats along the bank. The wter is pretty disgusting in the fact that all Varanassi untreates waste gets dumped directly into it, but still poeple drink the water,believing it will do no harm because they believe it to be holy.
We are now in a place called Patna, which is only a stopover on our way to Darjeeling. It is not a very nice city and we have not really ventured too far out of the hotel. We move on tonight on a 11 hour train journey to Siliguri where we will get a bus straight away up to darjeeling.
It is hard to believe that there is only a week left. the last 2 weeks have flown byand even the last 3 and a half month have flown by far too quickly. But it will be nice to get home and then start planning the next trip.
I will keep trying to find another place to updatemyphotos but it will not be for a couple more days i think.
Anyway, all the best to you all and i will write again soon.
- comments