My first week in India

23-24/02/09

The first part of mine and Rhiannon's trip went pretty smoothly. Our 8hr flight to New Delhi went without a hitch...apart from not being able to see the last 10minutes of 'Vicky, Christina, Barcelona', which we had chosen to watch as part of our in-flight entertainment and which was switched off by the captain before we could finish it! :(

We had pre-booked an airport pick-up to our hotlel in Delhi - Hotel Ajanta and arrived at 5am. It all seemed a bit old fashioned- with a check-in book that u had to sign, rather than computers and a lift that looked like something you might find in Fawlty Towers, with a pull across mesh door!

We decided to sleep off our flight for a few hours, then ventured out. We were met downstairs by Mr Rashid- the hotel's travel agent- who provided us with a map of Delhi ad asked if we wanted to book a car with him for 800rs which would take us around the city the next day. At the time this seemed reasonable- s o we said yes. Luckily we didnt have any money to pay him with at that time though- as we later found out that you could get to most places by cycle or auto-rickshaw for under 100rs.

We decided to walk down to Connaught Place-an area which had shops and things nearby. We hadnt really seen the full reality of the city before now- as it had been so early when we had arrived. There were no pavements, so you had to walk in the road- whilst cars,bikes and rickshaws drove past beeping and swerving in your direction! It was really hard-going to just walk in a straight line as you had t o avoid the beggars,the mangy dogs, the rubbish, the traffic , the people trying to sell you things....and the occasional cow! None of the shops really had shop fronts and the buildings just opened out into the dusty streets, surrounded by rubbish. Finally we reached Connaught Place and saw a TGI Fridays...which looked like a safer place to eat than the roadside places which were covered in flies and cooking things which looked slightly suspect!

After dinner we had our first auto-rickshaw ride to Lakshmi Narayan Mandir- a hindu temple. The ride was slighty nail-biting to say the least!No one seems to know how t o drive in a lane- if they even really have lanes and everyone ovetakes and undertakes even when there are things coming the other way! After that harrowing experience, the temple itslef was very serene and beautiful...with swastikas all over it...this sign symbolises the sun in the hindu religion- but it is still slightly strange to see it all over a temple!

We decided to go and see Rashtrapati Bhavan after the temple-which is where the president lives. There were two huge buidlings mirroring eachother on either side of a huge avenue.It was very grand and completely unlike any of the scenes we had seen in Delhi so far- You felt like you were in the western world...apart from the monkeys sitting on the steps leading up to the building! We were subect to our first bit of racist abuse as we walked down to the main road to find a rickshaw, when a man said 'Chinky chinky chinky' to Rhiannon...She was very offended! :D

By this time we were both tired- so we went home for dinner at our hotel and went to bed.

25/02/09

We got up late and went to see some more sights around the city including delhi's Red Fort ( which had lovely gardens) and the Jama Masjid ( the biggest mosque in India). In the garden of the Red Fort we had our first experience of the Indian men being intrigued by our "Very white faces" when 19 of them asked to have their photogaph taken with us! We obliged......but as we are continuously asked for photos with people i feel that maybe we shoudl start charging!! We also noticed in these gardnes how the men seemed to like walking around holding eachothers' hands-even wen they were reall y old. It was quite a sweet gesture of friendship really...although also quite amusing!

We soon realised that many of the Indian people were fans of a scam and were trying to get our money at every turn! Although already completely covered fom the neck down at the mosque, we were forced to wear huge dressing gown things and give in our shoes at the entrance, where rhiannon was almost short-changed and they tried to make us pay double the price on the board! On the way out they tried to make us pay to get our shoes back- when they had told us it was free to begin with- so we just put our shoes on and walked off! As we were walking around the steets people were constantly trying to sell you things and make you go to their travel agents to boo kthings. The rickshaw drivers would even agree a price with you to a monument and then try to drop you off down the road and make you pay more to drop you off at the entrance. We soon became wise to their tricks though and toughened up- refusing to pay much more than originally agreed!

We managed to get a cycle rickshaw home from the red fort, not before being sold two fake beards by a salesman outside! It was 20rs fro two so seemed like quite a bargain- especially as they were so realistic- we had a demonstration when the beard-seller put one on our rickshaw driver. The ride home was very interesting- e got to see more fo the chaos on th roads- but also saw parts of Delhi that we had not been through before: There was a bustling spice market, crowded with people, cows and monkeys swinging from the electricity pylons.

We decided to try dinner from a Indian restaurant around the corner from our hotel- so we started to walk don the busy winding street outside our hotel. Halfway there someone threw water all over my back and ran off- so i had t ogo back and get changed! Needless to say i was getting sick of Delhi and not being able to walk down a street without worrying about getting runover or some abuse!!

26.02.09

We got up late agin and went to some more sights around Delhi- the lotus temple- Which is a temple for people of all races and religions ( so hopefully i wouldnt get anything thrown at me there :D) It was a beautiful temple which looked a lot like the Sydney Opera House. We then went to the Qtab Minar- which is a huge victory tower next to the oldest mosque in India. The tower was made of red stone and was really impressive! We sat in the gardens surrounding it and saw chipmunks and monkeys.Today we had our first experience of an Indian Macdonalds- although we only bought chips because we were too scared to try the meat. We had to go through a metal detector to go in....it is quie a saced place i suppose! :D

27.02.09

Today we were supposed to be checking out of Ajanta and getting an overnight train to Varanasi to see the Ganges.. However, somehow i managed to catch tyhe infamous Delhi Belly (eventho i had eaten no meat, drunk only mineral water and steered away from dairy- most unfair!!)- so we couldn't go anywhere! Rhi spoke to Mr Rashid about where else would be good to go on our way to Agra - and we decided to book a car the next day and go to a town called Allwar- where we could go t o the Sariska tiger reserve. We stayed in all day and watched Hindi music videos on TV.....

28.02.09

I was feeling much better so we checked out of Ajanta and got into a car that looked like it came out of th 50s, with our sikh driver called kashmir. We finally left the city and drove through the countryside to get to Allwar. We passed alot of small villaes with a few small houses and people using pumps for water. The farms seemed to have a lot of wheat ad there were a lot of mud huts lining the roads. We finally arrived in Allwar after 3hours and i was happy to see it didn't seem as busy and dirty as Delhi!...It even had some pavements!

The family who owned our hotel- Hotel Yuvraj- made us feel very welcome and it had the feel of an english bed and breakfast. e had a huge room with an ensuite- unlike Ajanta where we didnt even have a window! The grandma and mum of the family sat with u downstairs and chatted t ous about England and our travel plans. When the son Lavkush came home he took us up to the lit-up fort on the hillside in Allwar. On the way up to the fort in the dark we saw a huge stag , which let us take pictures and a porcupine as big as a dog!! From the fort we could see all of the lights of Allwar which was really beautiful.

On the way back to the hotel we saw a wedding procession in the street with a man dressed up in a beautiful white and silver outfit on a decorated horse, with music playing loudly and fireworks. We stopped to buy some inidan sweet cakes called Ladu, which were very nice. It was nice to be shown Indian things with an Indian erson to tell us what things were. Then Lav dove us home and we had some nice home-cooked food- egg curry, lentil crry, some spiced potatoes and chapati. Although the mum told us the food was ten times les spicy than what she would give to her childen- it was still really hot!! and we had to drin ka lot of water!!

01.03.09

Today we got up at 5.30am so that Lav could take us to the Sariska tiger reserve. We saw alot of wildlife on the way including monkeys and peacocks- the national bird of India. We got a safari jeep around the reserve and saw a lot of dee, wild boar peacocks and monkeeeys. Unfortunately we didnt see an leopards or tigers. We stopped the jeep to feed birds- which flew down and sat on your hand whilst the ate out of it!Luckily no peacocks landed on us! :D We went to a hindu emple in the park where there were loads of squabbling monkeys chasing eachother. On the way back from Sariska Lav managed to get us in to see a 5* hotel near Allwar- where the Maharaja and celebs stay. There were stuffed tigers around the hotel ( no wonder there were nne to ee in the reserve!) We even saw the Maharaja's suite which had two bathrooms and chandeliers! We then drove to ahuge lake (hich we wee told had crocodiles in it) and bravely hired a pedalo for an hour. Luckily Rhi and Lav were in the driving eats so i could sit bak and enjoy the cenery! The mountains plunged staight down into the lake and a small palace hung over the cliff looking over the water. On the way back to Allwar we bought some huge Kingfisher beers and it was really nice to drive along under the tropical trees ( some of which had HUGE bees nests and honeycombs dangling from them) listeni g to msic and drinking a beer- especially as it was nice a nd warm and onl March!!

Later that day we decided to go into Allwar on our own for dinner and tried to get a rickshaw into town. The driver took us halfway then stopped to ask a policeman i he could translate for him where we wanted to go! Unfortunately as Allwar was qiute a quiet ton it seemed that not many people could speak English ( apart from the family who owned our hotel)- as in Delhi- so no one could really undertand! We gathered quite a crowd of men all trying to understand us- but no one could- so in the end- we just gave the driver some money and walked down the nearest street to see if e could find some food. We found a hotel and had dinner in the retaurant, then got a rickshaw home....after he tried to drop us at the tain station because he couldn't understand us!lol!

02.03.09

Today we went around the market in Allwar with Lavkush- we had shawls dyed especially for us -in the colours we wanted, which were beautiful and really cheap! We also saw a few more sights around Allwar- including the palace wheret the new maharaja had recently had a ceremony! We came home and the grandma of the family did henna tattoes for us. We also tried to do our own on our feet- needless to say our attempts were not particularly good! Lavkush then inivted us to to go to the gentleman's club that he was a memeber of tin Allwar that evening- apparantly the drinks were extra cheap there- so of course we obliged! :D We sat outside and had peanut masala ( a kind of bar snack of hot peanuts mixed with spice, tomatoes and onions- which was lovely) and had our first vodkas of the trip - for 60pence a shot and a half! After sitting anddiscussing cultural differences (including arranged marriages and the cast system) for a good few hours we decided it was time to go home and eat the butter chicken meal that Lavkush's mum had prepared for us earlier that evening. It was our first meat dish in India, so we were slightly dubious, but it was absolutely delicious!

03.03.09

We said our goodbyes to the Naruka family today and got our 4hour taxi to Agra the home of the Taj Mahal! En route we stopped at the side of the road for our driver to get a drink and an old man approached Rhiannon's open window with a monkey in a dress. The monkey did a somersault and the old man said "Money....monkey....money?"- not much of a sales patter really -so Rhiannon rolled the window up! :D

When we arrived in Agra I was pleased to see that it did not look as big and busy as Delh. We also found a Pizza Hut very near to our hostel- which provided our meals for the next 3 days!! :D

04.03.09

We managed to get a really nice cycle rickshaw driver today who drove us around Agra and informed us of the combination tickets to get into both the red fort and taj mahal ( to save us moeny) and gave us a goodprice for the day. The red fort was huge and like a maze - every so often you could catch a glimpse of the taj Mahal through the haze from its walls. We went for a pizza hut lunch and then went to the 'Baby Taj'- another tomb which looked a lot like the Taj Mahal calle d I'timad-ud-Daullah. We sat up on one of the walls and that looked out over the river and saw people bathing in the dirty water along with cows! We fed some of the friendly chipmunks that are all over the trees in india and saw Indian kites swooping and ciclring. We wanted to see the Taj mahal at either sunset or sunrise- but as we were too lazy to get up before sunrise- we decided to go and see it this evening in the sunset. First of all we went to a viewing point across the river and got some nice pictures-without all the other tourists in the way, then finally we made or way to the east gate of the Taj mahal an d went in. It is difficult to describe how amazing the building is in words. It is strange how the first big red gate, leading in to teh gardens, hides the giant building from view. It is not until you go through to the tree-lined paths leading up to the gian t white marble steps to the tomb, that you can really see it in all its glory. Rhiannon and I spent a long time in the gardens sitting on a bench and trying to get the perfect picture of us holding the top of the Taj. Although we were in the presence of one of the most amzing pieces of architecture in teh world- a lot of the Indians seemed to prefer to get pictures with us! We had 19 people ask to have their picture with us outside the Taj Mahal-even one holding someone's baby!It was quite flattering i suppose really! :D

We sat in the gardens until dusk to see the colours of the building change as the sun went down- however the sunset was not really asunset onm that evening- so there was only a lsight orangey glow on teh side of the building, but it was still very peaceful and beautiful nonetheless. We decided against having two pizza hut meals in one day and s o went to our hotel restaurant for dinner. then managed to find "When Harry met Sally" on an englsh channel on TV - so had a very nice evening watchign that!

05.03.09

We had run out of things to do in Agra- so filled outr time after checkout with doing some shopping. We had originally planned to go to a temple and a cycle rickshaw driver was happy to take us for 100rs-but after 15mins he told us that it was actually 18km- and we didnt fancy sitting in his rickshaw for an hour so we go t out. As we were walking away he told us that he would drive us to a few shops for free as he gets commision from the shop owners for bringing tourists to them.We normally said no to this- but as we had nothing else to do we decided to let him take us. We went to a fewdifferent places and i got to tie a knot in carpet in one fo te shops!haha! i got quite a few bargains including a nice wall hnaging nd some beautiful cushion covers with indian embroidery, which would have been three tims as expensive in England if not more. Eventually we headed back to our hotel to get our bags and go tot he train sation for our first ovrwnight rain to Udaipur. the train luckily came pretty much on time and we found our seats without a hitch. Rhiannona and I were charinfg a carriage with some indian men- we had the top bunks and they had the bottom bunks. It was a very smooth journey and the 12 hours seemed to paas very quickly as you could leep for most of it!