India

After 5 weeks our time in India is at an end and we are to leave this beautiful, ugly, hectic, infuriating, incredible country. The next stop on our round-the-world ticket is Singapore, which is a fab city, but having previously spent 10 days there with 2 tiny children, and knowing we have to stop there later to fly on to Australia we decided to keep moving straight through to Hong Kong. Of course we decided this in the planning stage, at home, comfy in the armchairs with the books and maps out, when a 10 hour wait between flights seemed reasonable, and now we were looking at a day and a half with no sleep!

We had to check out of our Delhi homestay at the usual 12pm, they were happy to hang onto our luggage for us – great. The flight was at 11.15pm (!), it’s a long drive to the airport so they arranged a car for us for 6pm. So what to do for 6 hours in Delhi? Well, we spent quite a long time in the local McDonalds which had a v.basic play area, then we walked through the market to the metro – an absolute modern anomaly in India and, we thought, an embarrassment to the London Underground as we were whisked in a/c comfort off to Connaught Place, to do a bit of shopping and waste a lot of time playing Ludo in various cafes!

Karol Bagh Market:


As we headed back to the station, thankful that the time at last seemed to be passing, we heard a shout and saw a white family waving at us – yes, we’d managed to run into the only people we knew in Delhi on the street! The girls all compared their McDonalds freebies...

We wandered back to the guesthouse and changed, then waited the Indian obligatory 30 mins for the cab to turn up late. The girls managed to catch an hour’s sleep on the way to the airport, and a few hours later we were on the plane, kids’ overjoyed to discover that ‘High School Musical 2’ was on the seat back TV – absolutely no chance of them sleeping! The trouble with India to SE Asia flights is that they’re too short – only 5.5 hours, but because of the time difference you ‘lose’ a whole night. The pilot smugly told us we would be early into Singapore – OH GREAT – even MORE time to kill! However if you’re going to have a 10hr layover, Singapore’s Changi airport is the place to do it. We stumbled off the plane at dawn and went straight to the Information Desk to try and sort out some time-wasting. There is a Transit Hotel in the airport, especially for people with lots of time and no sleep, but it’s ‘airside’ (past security) and we had to go and get our luggage (the other side of security) and wouldn’t be able to come back. ‘No problem’ said the lady at the desk ‘someone will take your stuff off the carousel to ‘Lost and Found’ and you can pick it up there later, it happens all the time.‘ Okaaay, can’t imagine that working at Heathrow, but if you say so...

We went up to the Transit Hotel, to find out that they didn’t have a room right now, but would put us down on the list, and we should come back in a couple of hours. No worries, we all needed breakfast anyway so we went off and spent 2 hours playing with the foot massage machines and doing a lot of running about. We duly headed back up at the appointed hour and I was still in ‘India mode’, convinced they would have no list, no record of us, and no room. But of course this was Singapore, land of total efficiency, and within 5 minutes we were checked in and had a bath running (A BATH, after 5 weeks of Indian showers and ‘bucket baths’, how lovely was that!)
We all managed 3-4 hours sleep, after which we got up and nervously went down to reclaim our luggage, which was predictably just as she had said it would be and caught out flight out to H.K. without further ado - in fact we almost ran out of time!

So having checked out in Delhi at 12pm on 31/10/07, we finally arrived at the hotel in HK at 11pm on 01/11/07 and I would just like to state that from now on, all flights I take will be via Changi (‘I need a ticket from Bristol to Bordeaux, via Singapore please’...!!)

See ya

All love CRFS xxxx

Although family ‘grown up gappers’ are in the minority of travellers currently, there are a few kindred spirits around. We’ve got to know one such family – they have a travel blog on this site too (‘Our big world trip’ by Jennrob) - and we’ve been trading emails for a while now. Whilst chatting about routes and timings we discovered that although we were starting on opposite sides of the Atlantic (they are from Toronto), and despite the fact we are going east and they are going west, we would all be in Delhi for the same 2 days at the end of October! So it only seemed right to try and meet up, and many emails pinged back and forth bearing the title at the top of this blog entry. It was complicated by our Agra side trip but eventually (thanks again guys for waiting for us whilst we were subject to the vagaries of Indian Rail!) we got to the hotel and found Jenn, Rob and Anica.

Anica is only 6 months older than Fin and all 3 of them bonded fairly immediately – as we walked down the road to Pizza Hut they were already holding hands! It was sooo lovely to have someone to chat to again, and Jenn and I spent all evening swapping travel details and tips – ours from India, where they are for the next 2 months, and theirs from Vietnam etc, where we are headed in the next 6 weeks.

We eventually dragged our offspring off to sleep and once we were settled back at the guesthouse, Chris said ‘Well, aren’t they just lovely people?’ Yes they are, and it was great for a few hours to know that we aren’t the only crazy people out there doing this!

Happy travels guys, stay in touch,

All love CRFS xxxx

We have had a couple of train trips since the first from Hospet to Goa. We got trains from
a)Jaipur to Udaipur (A/C 2 tier) and
b)Udaipur to Delhi (A/C 1st Class)
both overnight, names appeared on the carriage, e-tickets accepted, bedding there, clean, tidy, albeit a couple of nights sleep disturbed there were no really traumas; nicely banishing previous memories.

Tick.. India trains back under control.

Confidence high, trains busy but we were able to book some tickets on the Swarnajyanti Express albeit not quite what we wanted (A/C 3 tier berths 4 35/36/38) but more importantly we wanted to avoid another 4hr car transfer back to Delhi.

We arrived a few minutes early, identified train; platform from boards checked with staff and positioned ourselves on the island platform 2 & 3. An announcement advised the train was running late, no worries really come to expect this, the train had been travelling 18hrs already the fact that it was only 40 minutes late was probably good!
Now with a couple more minutes to wait we took it in turn to stay with the bags while the other went off to corroborate arrival time, platform and if possible where on the platform our carriage might be. The best we could manage was it could be either platform 2 or 3 and it was still only 40 minutes late but no luck on the carriage position.
Time ticks past, another announcement and the train is coming in on platform 2 not as displayed platform 3, we shuffle across confidence starting to wane, we speak to a couple of other passengers and stand there. More announcements and the train was still to arrive at platform 2 shortly.
We gaze up and down the tracks, a train arrives on platform 4 ....the 2803 Swarnajyanti Express! Having been jostling for position suddenly we were standing on the platform on our own. One of the people we had been talking to came running over ’that’s your train the Swarnajyanti Express’ pointing across two sets of track to another island platform ... Agggggghhhh no not again!!.

What now! Turning every man jack was either clambering through the stationary train at platform 3 onto the 2803 or jumping down at the end and crossing over the track to then climb up onto the Swarnajyanti Express. The train was only due to stop for 5 minutes we were halfway down the platform, would have to travel up the ramp and traverse to platform 4 across the gantry, with bags something we weren’t going to do in 5 minutes and counting.
So we jumped down from the platform at the end of the train. Ignoring the fact my right foot was in some poo, we all clambered down and across the tracks to our train.... at least we’ll be on the train even if not in the right carriage. At this point we were going to take being on the train over seats in the right carriage as a success.
We’re all on the tracks now fighting the locals towards the steps onto the Swarnajyanti Express, the girls up and on the train in turn, several trying to climb over Sadie, but now we are on the train breathing heavily ... what now - the train isn’t moving, do we go for it? Hamlets back in the pocket we exit the carriage onto the platform, platform 4 the one our train arrived on!!!

Long story short, we trugged our way down the platform stuttering at each aperture as though we were playing musical chairs, do I need to dive for this one or not. Fin’s not enjoying this but going with it and to re-enforce the stutter ‘let get on here OK next .... let’s get on here ... ‘you get the gist.
Again we found ourselves at the absolute opposite end of the train we needed to be. So we moved down the platform 15 carriages finally catching sight of carriage B1 our objective. Our berths were empty too, so we didn’t have to turf anyone out. We made it! Only 4 hrs on the train before we get off !!!

3AC class Indian train travel:

The train then sat there for another 15 minutes...

See you soon,
CRFS xxxx

So we're in northern India and the Taj Mahal is only 190kms away. You've got to go see it really. There. That's it. The thinking of every visitor to Delhi is what started the problem. Every book warned about it, as did everyone we spoke to who'd been there - they all said 'Agra, ahh' in a knowing sort of way.

After a painless overnight train from Udaipur - 1st class no less ('enjoy this girls, it's the only bit of 1st class on the whole trip') we arrived at Delhi train station looking to go straight out to Agra. i knew the trains were all full, so we went in search of a car to take us. I won't go into the finer details, but AN HOUR later we set off, in a car with a/c that worked, but seatbelts that didn't. Predictably 3 hours turned into 4, also predictably when we got to Agra we spent 30 mins driving around trying to find the hotel, even more predictably the driver expected more money than agreed ('so after possibly the most scary drive ever, plus the fact you got lost, you think that was good enough service to warrant a big tip? I think not').
Still, here we were in the hotel, Taj down the road, no worries. It's best viewed at sunrise so we go get some dinner and settle in with Jurrasic Park on the movie channel (quickly switched off as we realised it was malaria tablet day...).

Alarm goes off and we get up - Fin says 'Mum, it says five-four-nine and we're not supposed to get up until seven-something-something'. Well today it's OK, and off we go in a cycle rickshaw (no autos allowed near the Taj). It's very pretty with dawn breaking, very quiet despite the already considerable number of people there. Kids stand a look for a good 2 minutes, then want to go get breakfast! Chris is determined to get his money's worth so we walk around and inside. It's really quite impressive, but 7 and 4 year olds find it very dull. It doesn't do anything, it's not endangered and there's nothing to climb on, although there are some scary low walls to lean over and terrify your parents...

The Taj Mahal at dawn:

I must say we adults were left feeling pretty underwelmed too, partly to do with the hassle of getting there, and partly because of the story associated with the Taj. It was built as a mausoleum for the Emperor's 'favourite' wife (if it was me I think I would have been happier for him to give up the other 13 wives while I was still alive) and it seems he was not really a very nice person. After she died he didn't sit there for eternity mourning her demise, rather went out partying with loose women and hard drugs until they finished him off too. So really the Taj Mahal has a lot more to do with his own sense of self-importance than a great love story.

Then we ran the gauntlet of hawkers back to the hotel (no, I don't want to give you Rps 40 for a Taj on a keyring/in a snowglobe, in fact if you give it to me for free, I will still throw it away.) The whole Agra experience was topped off by a train trip back to Delhi, but I'll let the trainspotter write that one...

See ya,

All love CRFS xxxx

Ed: Actually that picture looks damn good, perhaps it's just another one of those ultra-photogenic indian places, as you can't smell it, or see all the crap on the street outside!!

OK, the excitement of our Ranthambore sighting of Machali wearing off and we had a day left at Jas Vilas in Jaipur. Nothing really on the agenda we spent a few moments shopping, jumping an auto (tuk-tuk) we finally get the headset we needed for Skyping (!?) along with a quick tour of a couple more sights in the ‘Pink City’.

a) Swarg Suli – Jaipur’s minaret which held great views across the city after a steep spiral climb to the top. From the top we were able to spot the forts we visited (Amber, Jaigarth; Naharagarth), the city palace and gaze down on the mayhem in the bazaars below
b) The Om Tower revolving restaurant, which held great views across the city after a steep spiral climb to the top. From the top we were able to spot the forts we visited (Amber, Jaigarth; Naharagarth), the city palace and gaze down on the mayhem in the bazaars below. The views as Swarg Suli but in a fantastically kitsch way, wood panelling, deep shag pile and big ice cream sundaes. However after one revolution the excitement was getting to much so we retired back to Jas Vilas to hang out and swim till it was time for our over night train to Udaipur.

Sunrise came and we were in Udaipur after a straight forward train journey. We were billeted in the Mahendra Prakash Hotel on the edge of the old town – a great little haveli with lovely gardens and pool - only a Rps 20 auto rickshaw ride from the City Palace, Jadgish Temple, as many roof top restaurants as you might want hot meals and some fantastic views of Lake Pichola and the Lake Palace (looks like floating on the lake) featured in Bond movie Octopussy.

The City Palace is impressive and consists of many mahals and chowks to wander through. The palace is by far the most impressive we’ve visited so far, with lots of coloured glass, mirrored tiling and ridiculously opulent decorations. We finished off with a look around the Crystal Gallery where everything was made of cut glass, yes tables, chairs, beds, picture frames, all Lead Crystal. Why? Good question...

City Palace colours:


There’s something different about old town Udaipur ... it doesn’t appear to be as rushed, the hawkers aren’t quite so persistent and you can spend the time to saunter about more. A boat trip on the lake at sunset ended a lovely few days here, now we must leave the beautiful colourful Rajasthan, with it's camels and elephants, as we only have 3 days left in India, and still have Delhi and the Taj to see!

Lake Pichola at night:

See you soon,
CRFS xxxx