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Hooray! I've survived India!! Though don't want to speak too soon as we're not leaving until early tomorrow morning and so far i've been spat at, runover by a rickshaw, waded through rubbish, trod in all kinds of poo, been harrassed by locals and propositioned by a number of men - certainly an eye opener!!
Recently the weather has been really bad and there have been numerous power cuts so i've been unable to get on the internet in many of the places that I've been too so i've got loads to write about .....
The best experience of this trip has to be sailing down the ganges - which we did in the first week. The weather was perfect - hot and breezy, and the food was delicious as we had our own chef sailing in his "kitchen" boat downstream with us. On the second day of sailing we stopped on the banks and explored a beautiful little village where the children where so excited to meet us! They all wanted their photo taken and were climbing all over me wanting to see their picture on the photo viewer - was quite strenuous!! It was completely different to the commercialism of Delhi, all these children wanted was a smile and a wave - not money! We saw their school - very basic, and some of the children sang for us, mainly in Hindu, but one sang "baa baa black sheep" in english!
After the Ganges boat ride we arrived in Varanasi, which i didn't particularly like - it was so dirty and busy. After Varanasi we caught an overnight train to Agra, which was 4 hours late so we dumped our bags and headed straight to Agra's Red Fort and then the Taj Mahal. At the Fort we had a great guide, who explained things in very simple straightforward english - so easy to understand! The Fort was impressive and i could imagine the marharaja and his wives living in the quaters, which would have been all decked out with plush carpets, ornate furniture and beautiful embroided curtains. After we headed to the Taj Mahal, which was so impressive. Built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan it's a haunting memorial to his favourite wife Mumtaz. The symmetry of the building is amazing and the first glimpse of it is breath taking. Interesting face though - it's not all made of marble! It woudl be too heavy and sink into the surrounding marsh land so the inside is made of brick! We spent a couple of hours at the Taj and waited for sun set hoping it would go pink but it didn't.
After Agra we headed to Jaipur - one of the cleanest cities i've seen here! The bus we took though had a missing windscreen which had been smashed and not repaired - instant AC! We saw a bollywood movie there and though i have no idea what they were saying as it was all in Hindu, it was really enjoyable - full of colour, action, singing and dancing. We also saw the Amber Fort, which i thougth was similar to the Agra Red Fort, but the most exciting thing was seeing the elephants! amazing! Jaipur is definately my favourite city with the most amazing bazaars - they were crowed and colourful, selling loads of clothes, saris, silk and semi-precious stones, which is what Jaipur is famous for! Needless to say chloe and i had a little shopping spree and snapped up some bargins! we're learning how to hussle! And we wandered down the most magnificent sari street - it was so vivid with bright colours and jewels - absolutely spectacular!
After Agra we stopped off to stay a night at a village called Roopangarh and stayed in teh fort that's been converted to a hotel! unfortunately that is where i think i got my food poisoning which has been agony and only properly cleared up today. Urgh!
We did a camel safari - which i think i would have enjoyed a hell of a lot more if i wasn't worrying about the effect the jolty camel movements would have had on my bowls! It was quite good fun though and the camels walk really strangely - their back legs take longer stride than their front legs so they look really gangly. Unfortunately our tent for the night was no more than a poorly constructed wind breaker - it was rubbish especially as it was so windy and we woke up the next morning with sand in our hair, face and clothes. Fortunately we got back home before the weather took a turn for the worst. We've recently had rain and thunder storms - thank god it's now at the end of the trip!
Anyway have heard taht there's snow back home - how bizzare! Hope you're all keeping warm, thinking of you all! We're heading to bangkok tomorrow morning and arrive late tomorrow night so my next entry hopefully i'll be writing about all the beaches i've been too!
.................right am having a little trouble uploading photos onto this site - it's really slow, so i've put them on my facebook page and here's teh link that you will hopefully be able to access them -
http://exeter.facebook.com/album.php?aid=40607&l=f5afb&id=223301605
Enjoy!xxx
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