our journey around the world

It turned out that the day we were to go to Jerusalem was a Friday, which is special to both Muslims and Jews and so the border closes at 2.30pm.  We were advised to go as early as possible because of this and so we arrived at 8.30.

The departures office was full of backpacks and kids and Muslim women.  It didn’t take long to realise something was up.  After about half an hour, we discovered that the process to be stamped out of Jordan which normally takes 5 minutes was delayed – their one computer was not working properly and it was now taking about an hour to process one passport.

After about 3 hours, the immigration officers, who up till now had all been sitting around the computer and looking at each other with quizzical looks on their faces, decided that maybe writing the passport details out could be an option and so they started doing that.  An hour later, we were all loaded onto the bus to take us across the border.  We were all a bit worried by now because the Israeli side is supposed to be the hard part and we’d just spent hours on the Basil Fawlty.. sorry… Jordanian side. [Read more →]

We flew from Cairo back to Amman and were met at the airport by a driver from the hotel we had pre-booked.  So easy, it was wonderful!  The hotel was outside of Amman at a place called Madaba which is near the Dead Sea. 

We really enjoyed the small town atmosphere of Madaba, with its yummy Arabic bakeries and shops selling Dead Sea mud and skin care.   We had a divine lamb kebab on our first night – unfortunately though not cheap.  Jordan’s currency is very strong to the Aussie dollar and everything here is crazy expensive – compared to Egypt anyway.

We were told over and over that because there was 6 of us that we couldn’t go anywhere in a normal taxi and that we would have to book a large car and driver, with the accompanying large price.  We decided to go out into the street and hail a taxi until we got one who would go where we wanted to go for a fair price with all of us in the car. 

No problem it turned out.  Off we drove to Mt Nebo from where Moses looked out across the Jordan Valley to Israel, the promised land.  It’s absolutely magnificent country around here.

Our next stop was Bethany – the site of Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist.  Unfortunately, the information we had was old and the kids were not excited about the 3km walk to the site on what was a very hot day, while Paul was not excited about the $60 entry fee!    We weren’t sure what would be at the end of the walk so we decided to pass and head for the Dead Sea. [Read more →]

Getting out of India was just as bizarre as arriving..  Did you know that all passengers arriving in India get sprayed with pesticide?  It’s quite funny because the flight attendants walk up and down the aisles with aerosol cans, presumably to stop you bringing nasty germs into India.. ha ha…

Delhi is a major hub so a lot of flights are en route to somewhere else and leave at crazy hours.  Ours was leaving at 5.30am and so we allowed ourselves plenty of time to get to the airport and left the hotel about 1.30.  Lucky we did because check-in took about 45 minutes – the clerks like to chatter amongst themselves while they’re doing your boarding passes.  They have a grand old time but we were sitting at 6 different locations all over the plane.  Could we sit together?  Oh really – ok, no problem.  I”ll change it for you. 

Only passengers are allowed into the airline terminal and you must show your tickets and passports (plus go through baggage xray) to get in the door.  So we had already had one check; then the check of passports at check in; then you must have another check by a uniformed officer to go through another door; then immigration; then the baggage xray again with yet another check of passports.  At the baggage xray, you also have to have all your hand luggage stamped.  These guys were also having a whale of a time; laughing and hugging people they knew etc etc.

When they announced our flight and we went to board, yet another check of passports by another uniformed officer and also a check that our hand luggage was stamped – what a surprise -we had a couple of bags that didn’t have the stamp.  They made us go all the way back to the clowns at xray and put the bags through again and we had to get one of them to get out his little Colop stamper and make sure this time he actually stamped it.

Meanwhile, the plane is waiting for us to have a bag filled with colouring pencils put through xray!  They don’t care about liquids or laptops but watch out for those colouring pencils carried in an open bag by a 7 year old!!

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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.

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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 →]