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Nameste friends,
It's been a bit of a mad week with a few downers but it's ended on a real high. There are quite a few photo's to look at so keep your lunch hour free. I'll start at the beginning.
I landed in Delhi at about 12:30 local time and end up with a mad taxi driver who has no idea how to use indicators or brakes for the matter. Luckily we survive the welcome drive and arrive at the Smyle Inn guest house. The Smile is not included in the price as I later found out. However it was an ok place for what is basically the slum part of town. So i'm sitting in my room and decide to go sightseeing around the city and happen to walk out on to a street full of touts and a*******s who wont leave me alone. I naively talk along to them unaware that they are leading me to a travel agent. At this point I decided that I hate Delhi with a passion and that a tour out of the city is a really good idea. After getting rid of the the tout by politely telling him where to go, I book a tour with a private driver to take me to Rajastan and happily await the next morning.
My tour guide arrives in his brand new Daewoo Matizz very enthusiastically for the 5 hour drive to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. Mr Sharma was an interesting charcter whose main talking points were red light districts, sex in the west, STD's and how every Indian is after my money except for him. This whole conversation was repeated for 5 hours until we got to Agra (and the next day). The Taj Mahal is absolutely amazing and I could have stayed there for the whole day. Mr Sharma had other ideas though taking me to a MArble emporium for all of my marble needs. Basically the shop owners made these marble table tops and other nik naks . It was all intricatley done and obviously highly skilled work. However it was also really vulgar, and he got very offended when I told him that nobody I know would like this stuff. Also it was 120 pounds for a table top and I asked him how he expected me to carry that around with me?? Idiot. I spent 1 night in the hotel in Agra and then it was off to Jaipur the next day.
On the way to Jaipur we stop at an interesting monkey fort where I was blessed by the priests. I though it was really nice until they wanted R150 out of me. Bloody priests. I told them I didn't even wnat it and they can make do with R25. Bargain! We arrive in Jaipur in the afternoon after more unexpected stops by Mr Sharma. He really ddin't understand that I wasn't interested in carpets and bloody pashmina's. "Only Look...only looking" he says. Anyway during these various shopping stops I go to the Amer Fort in Jaipur. This fort sits quite high above Jaipur and is a huge complex to exlore. It was also weird to see elephants sharing the road space with you. Jonners I took a few pics for you. I also went t the palace of the winds where ladies were seen an not heard during the maharajas times. Basically he used to pop in for a few tricks then go home, only to return the next day. Nice. He apparently had 70 wives to, so I imagine he was tired most of the time. Jaipur was also a cool place to spend Diwali which was fantastic. Loads of kids were running around throwing fireworks at each other which was quite bizarre. Health and Safety would have had a field day. I then boarded a sleeper train to Udaipur.
Udaipur is probably the most chilled place i've ever been to. It's an old city based around a lake with loads of rooftop restaurants and chilled out bars. I was getting a little concerned that I hadn't met anyone yet and was quite keen to tap into the travellers network. I've been hanging around with two fellow travellors in this brilliant guesthouse. Anna (American) Sarah (S. African) and I have been sitting in cafes and toured the city. There is a lakeside palace which we visited today. Unfortunatley it was mostly closed and the hours trip on the lake turned into 15 minutes. (Bloody Lonely Planet it lied to us fo the last time). We are going to watch Octup**** tonight as it was filmed here and they are crazy about it.
All in all though it's been a really good week. I've finally started to meet people and the trip is now taking shape. It can only get better
We are off to Ranakpur tomorrow to see more culture and probably sit in a cafe somewhere. It's a hard life friends!
Hope all is well with you guys and i'll update you all before I head to Nepal.
All the best
Will
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