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So let's start with the first part of our trip. This is backdated for the time we spent in India.
The top 10 disasters in India:
1. Arriving in Dehli - it was our first day in India, we were excited and nervous at the same time. We got in a taxi on our way to the hotel which I had previously booked online (described in reviews as "a nice basic place to stay for a few days in Dehli"). Now I would agree with basic. As our taxi pulled into what could only be described as a slum, all excitement disappeared. We left the taxi after giving out an outrageously high tip and made our way through a honeycomb of rubbish filled, narrow alleyways and found the hotel. We got to our room and by room I mean a box with a stained covered mattress, looked at each other and held back the tears with laughter!
2. Malaria tablets not going down well - so the doctors told us to take the malaria tablets about a week or two before we go so our stomachs get used to them. We decided, as we were celebrating the weekend before we left, to leave taking the tables until the day before we departed. Turns out that it was a bad idea, when Tash spent the first day with her head out of the car window being sick. To make it worse the driver was quite annoyed that we wanted to stop for her to be sick, so decided not to and carried on driving.
3. Screwed over by the travel agent - so bemused by Dehli we went straight to a travel agent and booked a package for the first week which included ongoing train tickets. When questioning what happens if the trains are fully booked we were told "that is my problem, don't worry" and foolishly I paid him the money for the trip. The next day when picking up our tickets we discovered that we were wait listed for one of our trains, not to mention now having a night in "expensive" Mumbai and no hotel room. It was suddenly our problem not his.
4. Arguing with the driver - we decided after his company had screwed us over and he had decided not to take us to a couple of places we wanted to go to, that we would not give him a tip. This did not go well, quite a scene was caused outside the train station, which we hastily entered while his screeching tires sped off in the background.
5. Tash having her boob groped - as we were running across a bus station trying to get catch our bus an Indian man thought it would be a good idea to grab Tash's boob. Usually this wouldn't have worked out very well for the Indian man, however she was in so much shock that someone had just done that, combined with our bus pulling away that she never has time to thump him one.
6. The Indian sleeper train service - every sleeper train we went on came with it's own Indian wildlife to keep us company through the night. These were either in the form of rats or cockroaches.
7. Getting badly sun burnt - I thought it was a little funny when Tash got back to the hotel after an afternoon on an overcast beach and was red all over until the next morning when I discovered I too was burnt and it had just taken the night to develop. It meant we spent the next two days lying in bed in one position, hiding from the sun and lathering ourselves in aloe vera.
8. Being restricted to only going where there was a toilet near by - after thinking travellers diorreaha was a myth, as I had been eating Indian curries for over week now and was feeling fine, I found out it wasn't a myth.
9. A whole town going on strike - we went to the romantic mountain top tea plantations for a couple of days. Turns out it's not so romantic when the town goes on strike at the same time you want to leave and there is no way out, not to mention all shops closing and it deciding to pour down with rain.
10. Accommodation closing during monsoon season - we were all excited to be leaving the cities and heading for the beach until we got the beach at 10pm, in the dark and the pouring rain with a guide book in one hand and a torch in the other trying to find accommodation. The guide book left out the fact that most accommodation closes during the monsoon season. By the time we had found somewhere the rain had leaked through our bags and soaked our clothes.
Hope this has made you all feel better!
- comments
Katie This is a hoot...poor you two :(!! Funny to look back on tho!! Miss u both xx