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Hello, hello, hello - Caroline here at last! It takes soooo long to wait for this site to load up here & unfortunately whenever we try to put picci's on, the computer crashes. Will put them on whenever we get a fast connection.
So we arrived 29th Jan on Indian soil - Mumbai. Got a cab to our hotel, first taste of the crazy drivers over here, and 45 minutes later arrived in a place called Colaba. Went to bed as silly o'clock in the a.m. Next day went on a tour of Mumbai, saw from a distance where the Parsis (descendants of Persian's), lay there dead in the Towers of Silence, the bodies get picked clean by Vultures, quite eerie & don't think our Hindhi taxi driver liked it either, went to many places inc' Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat which is the biggest human washing machine, 1026 open air troughs where ppl are employed to beat the dirt out of the local people's laundry. Also visited Gandhi's house. Was interesting to learn about his life and was anniversary of his death the day we went - 30th Jan. Also in Mumbai, we got asked on 3 seperate occasions to be Bollywood extra's, but declined as stayed two days in Mumbai before heading to Goa, and would be gone before filming started. 18 million ppl live in Mumbai.
Got a night train to Goa - 12 hour journey I think. It was great. Got on a very basic train and had a hard kinda slab to lie on. Very slow, jolty & noisy but bustling with intriging people, mainly men. Non-threatning environment but stinky as they all let rip, belch and hawk up constantly - pwrooghhh!!!
Goa - Ohmigosh - Paradise!! Stayed in a hostel in Anjuna run by a lovely family. First night we arrived they had no rooms but allowed us to sleep on their roof, there were torn sheets tented up to shield us from view and a double bed. Looked like a hippy commune but was fun! Decided to stay 5 days, but got put in a normal room - boo! Decided to hire a scooter as is the cheapest way to get around & pretty much everyone owns a motorbike in India - no helmuts either I'm afraid - sorry Mum! We headed out and about over the 5 days to Anjuna Beach, Calangute Beach, Baga Beach, for relaxation - & explored other places also. Had a lot of fun but also a bit of a set - to with locals as poor Matt lost key to scooter first day we rented it - OOOPS!! It's somewhere floating in the sea or on a beach. Told manager we got robbed as thought it sounded better hehe, he gave us a new bike after we paid 500 rupies for him to collect it & get new lock/key for bike. All was well until we returned second bike on our last day. A guy basically kidnapped Matt & told him he had to go find the bike & bring it back as manager not bothered to collect it for two days, what an arse! Argument followed as we said we're not paying for bike if someone's nicked it as we paid 500 rupies for Manager to collect blah blah... all was good in the end and we were asked to pay more money so in total 900 rupies poorer, but not that much really is it. Also, Matt is a wkd driver, really safe however, we came off bike once when the road turned to sand. We slowed to a halt almost as too hard to drive through sand so Matt revved up the engine, it was hilarious, and it was embarrassing, I've had worse crashes on a pushbike lol, got up laughing & red faced, tiny scatches only.
Thought we'd do a tour of the South, Kerala was next on the list where we could spot elephants in a sanctuary etc... but have decided as this country is soooo mighty & huge that going further South, then zig-zagging West & then up the middle is just too much. After Goa, headed North. Took a 12 hour or more night bus, nightmare that was but good fun too, thrown all over the show, and felt quite sick, no toilet stops after first two hours & I was busting, but the bus was funny. Little cubicles curtained off meant standing on everyone to scrabble up to our bunk, but everyone has a sense of humour about it. Arrived in Mumbai - Bandra, got a cab back to Colaba as Bandra just chaos, stayed and had a bite to eat, then back to Bandra for an 18/19 hour night train to Jaipur where we are now until 1.00 pm tomorrow/Friday. Off next to a place called Pushkar.
Present day today: First hot shower in 10 days!! Went to visit Amber Fort/Palace today & another place but forgotten name, took ages to walk there as was 2 or 3 kilometer's away but good. Amber Fort beautiful, but parts closed for refurbishment which was major shame, took loads of picci's. Other place we went to was amazing also, breath taking views as we were up high. Lonely Planet guide book recommended taking a picnic up, which we did. Sitting down quite happily munching a sandwich when I had a feeling someone was behind me, turned my head and sorry to swear, but I s***e my pants as this bloody great monkey was sat an inch from us. Shouted at Matt to move, as he got up the monkey jumped on bench and grabbed packet of bread ripped through it with his teeth, and munched all the bread up, chucking the crusts away. It was funny after the initial heart attack, then a few more monkeys came over, these are not your cute zoo types, these are wild & vicious. Some people came over and chased them away, Matt had a go but made mistake by bearing his teeth at the moneky's which apparently in monkey language means 'bring it on', it went mental. All the other tourists & locals laughed and monkey's became the centre point of focus instead of this wonderful Palace he he. Bit's of ripped plastic, breadcrusts everywhere, noise and mayhem littered the place and we slunk away with the sign Stupid Tourists planted in our heads!
I wanted to write an account of my days in India so far, but as I've not written for ages I have documented our jouney so far. Next time I write will be from the heart & I'll tell you my feelings for this place as opposed to a day by day account of where we are. Very tired now so going to bed! Good night, god bless & I love you all! Caroline x x x x
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