Category — India

Not sure how to summarise our visit to India.  It was definately our most difficult travel so far and we all had days where we discussed paying the airline penalties and flying out early!

The highlights continue to be meeting people – namely visiting the people growing vegetables at Ranakpur and 4 Delhi street kids who will stay in my mind forever.

There is way more to India than just the Taj Mahal and the numerous temples.  If you want a travel challenge, this is the place to visit.

Favourite Place:-

Paul – Ranakpur
Amanda – Rishikesh
Caitlin – Shimla
Georgie – Jaisalmer
Ashlea – Shimla
Michael – Jaisalmer

Favourite thing we did:-

Paul – Visiting people’s homes at Ranakpur
Amanda – Tiger safari
Caitlin – Camel safari
Georgie – Camel safari
Ashlea – Camel safari
Michael – Camel safari

Favourite food:-

Paul – Chicken biryani, Jodhpur
Amanda – Vegetable biryani, on the road to Rishikesh
Caitlin – Happineez butterscotch ice cream, Jaipur
Georgie – Tuna Subway, Shimla
Ashlea – Vegetarian pizza at Pizza Hut, Jaipur
Michael – Nachos at Little Buddha Cafe, Rishikesh

Thing we disliked:-

Paul - The chaos
Amanda – Touts at the Taj Mahal
Caitlin – Old Delhi because “I didn’t feel safe”
Georgie – The shopkeepers
Ashlea – Rubbish everywhere
Michael – Everything was messed up

Our last few days in India were highlighted by more driving – this time up into the Himalayas.  Firstly to the British hill station Shimla, which is built onto the side of the mountain.

The drive up was absolutely terrifying – made our previous mountain drive in Vietnam look postively tame.  Apparently Indian drivers don’t make allowances for one lane mountain roads with no barriers (ie a sheer drop 100’s of feet over the side) and still drive just as fast and crazily as they do in Delhi.  They overtake on blind bends, drive around the crashed trucks (we saw a few) and generally drive like maniacs.  [Read more →]

When we had been planning our trip to India, I had pulled Ranthambore National Park off our itinerary because it’s a bit out of the way and also because I was under the impression that the chances of seeing a tiger were fairly minimal.

However, when we were offered this driving tour, Ranthambore was a part of it and even though I still thought our chances of seeing a tiger was nil, I was still looking forward to seeing the other animals in the park.

The safari was about 3 hours in the back of a really noisy truck that had been converted into an open top bus, over a dirt track that could never be described as a road!  The truck bounced over rocks and roared up hills and took off around corners when a jeep in front heard about a tiger in the bushes in the area.  We all sat in complete silence, sweating, peering into the scrub, straining to see anything that looked remotely like a cat.  We saw plenty of deer and antelope who all just stood close by looking at us curiously as we roared past. [Read more →]

Our next town was Pushkar – but this turned out to be our Indian hump town.  Pushkar is a holy town on a lake with temples and lots of sadhus (holy men in saffron robes).  The whole town is alcohol free and there are signs up everywhere to say there will be no eating meat or eggs, no drinking and no public affection between men and women.  Men hold hands in India all the time – it’s really common – but definately no touching with the women!

Anyway, we were tired and we just couldn’t be bothered.  We stayed in our hotel room in the air con (when there wasn’t power cuts) and only ventured out at night to get dinner.  Sightseeing  cannot be done on a continuous basis- it becomes just plain boring after a while.  Spending time just being in a place amongst the people is far more interesting, which is why we were starting to get tired on this driving trip and realised it probably hadn’t been the best choice for us. 

On the other hand, India was also our “hump” country.  We’d been travelling for over4 months and we were a bit tired.  India is not an easy destination – you have to be on your toes and it can be exhausting just getting from one place to another.  Add on the whole terrorism thing and we’ve forgiven ourselves by deciding that the car journey was probably the best of the options available.

[Read more →]

So have I mentioned up till now that India is hot this time of year?  On top of that, they’re also having a heat wave so apparently it’s hotter than it normally is at this time of the year.  It hasn’t been under 45 during the day since we arrived.

Luckily for us, it’s a different heat to Perth. There’s no way you could go outside on a 42 C day in Perth without being burned to a crisp in minutes.  The sun just doesn’t seem as burning – sure it’s hot, but we haven’t been sunburned at all.  Does make you crave water though – one thing you should never take for granted is ice and a cold drink..  When you can’t get them, you realise how wonderful they are! [Read more →]

We travelled onwards toward Jaisalmer – a town on the edge of the Thar Desert near Pakistan, most famous for it’s fort which stands high on a ridge like a giant sand castle.  It’s also a well known jump off point for camel safaris.

We had driven for a long time that day and we were hot and dusty when Singh pushed the car through the cows and bristly, black pigs that were running across the road near our hotel.  The kids got a big kick out of the half grown bull that wondered up the stairs into the hotel lobby while we were checking in.  Apparently they feed him there and he was hungry!

We wandered through the streets of the fort – which is basically a walled city – dodging the cows that were lying across or standing in the middle of the narrow lanes.  We happened across a man sitting outside his house, who invited us in.  He said that his 4 x great-grandfather was the secretary to the maharaja and that he had built this amazing haveli to entertain important guests.

The amazing thing was that the man was quite happy to show us through his home but he wanted no payment.  He was selling anything of any importance he could take from the house, as naturally the upkeep was expensive.  I was so impressed I gave him some money anyway. [Read more →]

So, we piled all  of our gear and ourselves and our new best buddy Singh into an 8 seater and off we went for a “casual drive” around Rajasthan for a week or two.

The first thing Singh told us was that it would take about 2 to 3 hours to get out of Delhi.  We thought he was exaggerating.  Actually he was probably being conservative.  The whole city is upside down with roadworks, metro works, sewer works – you name it, there’s “works” for the upcoming Commonwealth Games.  As a result, the traffic crawls along over piles of concrete and around massive holes and open sewers and all the rest of the normal road hazards – ie people, buses, trucks and rickshaws.  I was expecting to see cows as well, but then I found out that the government has moved most of the cows out of the city centre. 

The other thing that effects the traffic is the standard of driving.  We thought Vietnam was bad – it’s like preschool compared to India!  There are lanes marked on the roads but I think most drivers see them as a suggestion.  In reality, the order of the day is to drive wherever you think will get you there faster – that includes on the wrong side of the road; the verge; over median strips etc etc.  There may be 2 lanes marked at the intersection with traffic lights, but there will generally be about 5 lanes of traffic waiting.  My personal favourites are those intersections without traffic lights.  It seems like 25 lanes from 5 different directions all try to go through the intersection at the same time.  We just shut our eyes and prayed that Singh knew what he was doing. [Read more →]

So I mentioned earlier that our stay in “Little India” in Hong Kong was good preparation for India.  I’m guessing that anyone who’s ever been to India will tell you that nothing will ever prepare you! Lonely Planet describes it as “falling down the rabbit hole into Wonderland where everything is upside down”.  I think this is a good description.  This is a place where women cover their faces but their midrifts are visible; where tiny donkeys carry massive loads while fat bulls laze idly on street corners; where over 300 gods are idolised and there is a temple full of holy rats; and last but not least, over 30 languages are spoken, but not all can understand the official language and around 35% are illiterate.  It really is completely mad.. [Read more →]