Buddhist Borobudur

We're beginning to get used to early starts but this morning we had to be up at 4am to be picked up at 4.45am so we could get to Borobudur early. Of course none of these places actually open before sunrise (unless you want to be pay a huge amount more!) so we witnessed sunrise on the 40 minute drive out of Jogja to the monument.

Now we had read that Borobudur is supposed to rival Angkor Wat and from looking at photos we were really excited. I have to say when we first got there we were a little underwhelmed! I think mainly because it was a lot smaller than we expected and having seen Angkor, very few places compare. It looks like a 9 tiered mountain,however and the reliefs that are carved in to the walls of the middle galleries are extremely impressive and tell the story of the historic Buddhas life. Borobudar is supposed to symbolise the Buddhist journey from reality, through 10 psychological states to nirvana or spiritual enlightenment. It took 75 years to build starting in the middle of the 8th century. It is built from volcanic rock that was taken from river beds and it is thought the carvings were done in situ. The Kings of the era enforced a 'labour tax' so each farmer or landowner in the area owed the King a certain numbers of days work from his labour force which were used to build the monument.

The top levels have 72 stupas, that get smaller as you go up the levels. Inside each stupa is a statue of a Buddha that is partially seen through holes cut in to the stupas. On each level apart from the lowest 2 there are statues of Buddha, there are 504 Buddha images in total! The first 2 terraces are square and plain, it is thought the bottom tier hides other reliefs, which were excavated and then built back to preserve the structure.

Overall, it was well worth seeing for the reliefs, especially at first light when it is comparatively quiet.

Yogyakarta- From South to North...To further South.

21.10.11

We started today with our free breakfast (Well not free but included in the price of the hotel)

and we were ready to go Exploring.

Our hotel is in the south of the city, on a road filled with 'mid range' accommodation called Prawirotaman. We were armed with a map we were given on check-in and 2 our flasks filled with already luke-warm water. We headed north (obviously) and quickly found ourselves on road names nowhere to be found on our map, however we knew which direction roughly to head and figured we'd be fine. We were busy comparing the city to other places we'd been and to India in general. It felt very different, the roads were smooth and had pavements, ones you could walk on at nearly all times and that weren't covered in rubbish and/or excrement (which is always a bonus!). Every few feet there was huge pots of shrubs and flowers, it felt a lot 'greener' than similar places in India. We began to notice many of the shops had bird cages hanging outside, I remembered reading somewhere something about song birds being prized possessions here.

Along the pavements there where vendors selling glass bottles of fuel and pouring them into motorbike tanks with a hosepipe. I guess access to Petrol stations isn't as common or easy as back home and the bikes have small engines, the guys selling the petrol seemed to be doing good business. There were lots of places making their trade through motorbike maintenance or similar.

We found our way through lots of little winding streets to places we could see on the map, but actually this pottering around, no real clue of where we were was the highlight of the day. We got to see lots of places you wouldn't bother to go looking for and we greeted warmly by the people, homes and businesses we walked past, with lots of people wanting to just say hello and wave as we walked past, with lots of smiles and giggles thrown in. Smiling seemed to be a lovely theme here, all in all it has to be the place we have been with the happiest looking people (possibly joint actually with the smiling and excited faces we saw in the slums in Pune).

So we made our way to the main street in of the town, which has markets and stalls everywhere, it is very popular with tourist and local students and also some of the markets looked to be doing very good business with the locals. This road leads from the area called Kraton (The sultans Palace and surroundings) up to the north towards the train station, we had missed seeing the palace on route up to this road as we had taken lots of little side roads. We walked up and down the best part of Malioboro road, although it is much the same as many similar roads in cities across south east Asia that we have seen. Now we headed back south but this time to find the Sultans Palace, which we promptly found a few minutes later at 12.20, only to find that today the palace shuts at 12.oo. No looking around there for us today but it was no drama as we can easily head back another day if needed.

We then went looking for the Water Castle, which was used by the Sultan to bath. Before we could find it a 'Guide' found us and showed us to the temple. He followed us in and when we explained we did not want a guide and could not pay for one, he said it was included in the price of the ticket and we would not have to pay. So we allowed him to show us around, he was very nice and quite informative as he ushered us around the Sultans water palace. This was built as a kind of playground fore the sultan, with 3 pools, sauna rooms, a tower that the sultan could watch his wives bathing from and underwater tunnels. There was even an underwater mosque. Much of the area is in ruins, a recent earthquake causing part of it to be inaccessible. Our guide actually lived in the grounds of the Castle. He took us around the narrow streets and showed us his home and the homes of his family members, most of which were employed by the current Sultan as he is. The current sultan has 1 wife and 5 children and one of his daughters had just got married. The royal wedding was held on the 18th October in Jogja, so we just missed it! Our 'guide' did take us to various Batik and puppet making emporiums, but there was no problem with us not buying anything.

From the Water Castle, we continued south along a wide, busy road hoping to find the Bird Market. The Bird Market is permanent and there are rows of small stalls/shops selling mainly birds in beautiful decorated cages. There were all sorts of birds, including huge cockerels, owls, ducks, pigeons, tiny songbirds, ducklings tied all kinds of weird and wonderful colours and more colourful parrot like birds. It was fascinating to walk around although quite upsetting at times, as the cages were usually tiny and quite often had large numbers of birds inside. There were also bats, lizards, ants, maggots and crickets on sale. At a couple of other stalls we came across gerbils, that were quite entertaining as they kept standing on their hind legs and then toppling over backwards!

By this point we were really quite tired and had been sweating buckets all day so we walked back to the hotel for a refreshing swim before going back to Via Via for another delicious meal!

Our first train journey in Indonesia.

20.10.11

This morning we had to tackle the buses to get to the train station. So we left at 6.30am to avoid rush hour, this was a good move! We potentially had 2 changes at progressively busier stations but at our first stop one of the conductors helped us out. He told us to wait to one side and he would tell us when a direct bus to Gambir came. He then let us get on the back of the bus after everyone had got off instead of with the crush of people at the front doors. This was good news as I would have struggles to get me and my backpack on safely. It was pretty rammed none-the-less and we were glad we only had a few stops.

At Gambir we had a wait of an hour an half which was fine as there was a plug socket so we could do some blog writing.

WE had booked ticket in Executive Class which we had debated on because it was so much more than Business Class. But we thought it would probably be worth the money if Martin was comfortable on a 8 hour journey. It was definitely worth it! We had plenty of space with reclining seats. There was aircon with a nice citrus scent pumped in every so often. There were TV screens playing Indonesian music videos with the odd Westlife/Alicia Keys/Foo Fights song chucked in, terrible slapstick comedy sketch shows and cheesy horror flicks. This was a bit odd considering there were several young children on the train. We had 2 waiters in the carriage who were constantly coming up and down the train with snacks and beverages for sale and we bought lunch off them. This was edible and served to us at the exact time they said it would be!

During the 8 hours we travelled about half the length of Java. We only travelled a few minutes at any one time without seeing some kind of settlement. For most of the journey it was overcast and the landscape was flat, mainly rice fields separated by trenches, some flooded, some bright green and some dry. Throughout the fields were dotted small shelters where workers could take shelter. Along the train tracks we saw many towns and villages, which generally seemed to be alot better off than some of the areas we past through in India. I don't remember seeing any apartment blocks apart from on leaving Jakarta, unlike India where the main well-off areas seem to be made up of apartment buildings. The roofs here were mainly pitched and a lot of the houses had beautiful teak doors and window-frames.

As we got further towards Jogja the sky became more overcast and there was a good few miles of torrential rain. The landscape became more mountainous and there were more trees. We arrived at Jogja about half an hour late at 5pm.

As we exited the train station we expected to get mobbed by taxi and rickshaw drivers. However to our suprise they were all stood patiently by their rickshaws smiling! We got in to a cycle rickshaw. The cycle rickshaws here are different to those in India. Instead of the bike pulling the rickshaw, here the bike is behind the rickshaw. We were cycled all the way through the middle of Jogja down the main road so we could get a good feel for the town. It is a young persons, being the educational capital of Java. The main street is full of stalls selling batik and is very lively. The hotel, Duta, we wanted to stay in is about 3 km away from the main street.

When we arrived there it was more expensive than we anticipated so Martin went for a hunt around the other hotels as there were loads nearby. The cheapest we could find was about £1 less than Duta and wasn't as nice. So we took the room at Duta, the first room on this trip without it's own bathroom. But the hotel itself is so worth it. The rooms are arranged around a small but beautiful pool, that has a 12 foot waterfall that trickles in to it. The whole hotel is beautiful with lots of communal space and each room has seating on a balcony. You also get free wifi and breakfast so I would recommend this place!

This evening we went to find the ViaVia restaurant up the road. This is a worldwide chain of restaurants that puts its profits back in to the local community. The food was amazing! Another recommendation!

Negotiating Jakarta

19.10.11

Today turned out to be quite a lot more stressful than we anticpated!

We decided to brave the bus system today as we needed to go to the train station

to buy a ticket for tomorrow. William had said the bus shelter was very close,

across the road. So we made our way to the main road hoping to see the

shelters. We saw a footbridge over the road so we headed for that. There

were buses pulling up at both side of the road at the foot of the bridge.

But it was impossible to tell where they were going and there was no shelter

to pay like William had described, so we decided this wasn't the correct

system!

Determined not to give up, we went back to our apartment block, which in itself

was trecherous-trying to cross the roads. From there we called William for

clearer directions. This time we walked towards the mall and around the

side of the main entrance was another footbridge. This time when you crossed

over the slip road and went down the steps you got to a small shelter

with a ticket booth and clearly marked signs labelling the routes. A route map

looks similar to a underground map and the buses go up and down the routes,

in specially designated lanes, continuosly. You pay for a single journey

on entering the shelters and can change bus routes within the shelters without

paying again. It was still slightly confusing, even with a map, as it wasn't

always clear what direction on the route the buses were going and sometimes it was

difficult to tell which stop we were at. It was also a bit scary trying to get

on the bus at times as the shelters are a good few feet off the ground, the gaps between

buses can be a couple of feet and then you have crowds of people shoving

to get on the bus!

Anyway, after changing twice and feeling quite smug we got to the station. We

found the correct ticket counter and the lady spoke good English. This was all

looking pretty straight forward! Until we realised we'd only bought my wallet

with us, with half our money and 1 bankcard. We didn't have enough cash

to pay for the ticket so we had to find an atm. No problem! So off we

trundled to the atm only to find my card was rejected. Panic began to set in

as we realised we couldn't buy a ticket and get back to our hotel. So

we either had to go all the way back to our hotel and then back again or

phone the bank and get it sorted.

So luckily we did have a sim card and credit so I called Barclays. Before the call

had started I was panicked because I knew I did not know my telephone banking

code and did not have any information with me. Got through to 'Personal

Banker 1' and got through the first few security questions okay and then he started

to get progressively ruder, talking down to me , being really abrupt.

I asked him not to speak to me and that way and explained for the 2nd time the

situation I was in and that I was already quite stressed. The next question

I didn't quite catch because of the line and he shouted at me...at which point

I burst in to tears! Brilliant! In my head this is not the person I am!

In my head this situation doeesn't phase me, it's not a desperate situation.

Anyway..apparently I am a big pansy so I just cried!

Martin took the phone off me and demanded he speak to his manager, who he told

how cross he was for having staff that made pathetic girls like me cry!

I then pulled myself together and answered the same questions again to get through

security and he was just putting the call through to the fraud department

when.....the phone ran out of credit! Great.

So we bought some more credit with the little money we had left and I tried again!

This time I was even more flustered and didn't get through the security questions

with 'Personal Banker 3', but I begged him and was about to start crying again

when he put me through to the fraud department. Luckily i got through security

questions and she agreed to reinstate my card (lucky me being to access my own

money!). So £15 quid or a days budget later we managed to buy a train ticket

to Yogykarta or Jogja.

After that we had some lunch at the station and then decided we would head back

to the hotel. We did consider trying to navigate around Jakarta on foot as we

were now more central, but I think Martin worried that the smallest mishap

now might push me over the edge!

When we returned to the apartment we went for a relaxing swim and then got ready

to go for dinner. We didn't go to the cinema in the end because the times

were different from the night before and we missed the film we had planned to see.

So I let Martin loose on the chocolate aisle of Carrefour instead!

First impressions of Jakarta

18.10.11

We were sad to be leaving Singapore this morning but looking forward to coming back in

1 month time and to our month in Indonesia.

It took under 2 hours to fly to

Jakarta and we had arranged to be picked up from the airport by a taxi and taken

straight to our accomodation, which we had booked in advance.

The first thing that struck us about Jakarta was the traffic. We were on huge

trunk roads, with 3/4 lanes (they made their own lanes!) and they were overloaded.

We also noticed a system of bus lanes, with shelters in the middle of the

carriageway, people stepped off the shelter about 3 foot off the ground on to

buses. The shelters were connected by walkways across the manic roads and

down the middle of the carriageways were wide, filthy canals, strewn with

rubbish. We had read that Jakarta was very large, with no real centre and

notoriously difficult to get around on foot and what

we were seeing confirmed this.

It took us about an hour to get to our appartment block where we were met by the

notorious William. This was an ordinary residential

unit with 32 floors, there were 3 other identical blocks with a pool complex in

the centre. We were in a condo on the 16th floor, with a small kitchen/lounge,

2 bedrooms and a bathroom. We could see the amazing pool down below, it appeared

to be almost olympic size, with a moat like pool around it and surrounded

by paths and raised flower beds; very picturesque.

We wanted to buy a sim card so William very helpfully took us to a store in the

basement and helped us to buy one. There was also a supermarket so we

picked up a few bits for a snacky lunch, before we headed down to the pool.

There were lots of children in the moat and other more serious swimmers in the

pool. I realised that my bikini wasn't going to be appropriate, as many of the

women were wearing shorts and t-shirts to swim, so I didn't get in.

Later that afternoon we ventured to the mall which was only 5 minutes away.

Again it was very grand, housing a 5 star hotel, cinema and Fun-Land! There

must have been about 50 restaurants aswell, most of which seemed to be doing

good business. We decided to get dinner in the food hall. It was interesting

trying to decipher what was on offer, we had no idea what the dishes were

and there was little English spoken. So we pointed to couple of photos on the

menu and hoped for the best! I ended up with a Gado Gado, a cold vegetable salad, served

with a boiled egg and covered (swimming) in peanut sauce. It was very tasty

but the sauce got a bit much. Martin had something similar but it was a

noodle salad in the same sauce.

Afterwards we went to check out the cinema. The normal seats cost around £2 each.

There was also a Velvet cinema, where seats were like matresses with pillows

and a small table so you could lounge. These seats cost a tenner. We

decided to come back tomorrow night to watch a film as we were tired. So

we went back to the apartment, watched a film in our lounge, novelty, and sampled

some local largers, Bintang (cost 10,000 rupiah or about 70 pence) and Anker,

which were very pleasant!

Singapore

17.10.11

We had both been really excited about our day in Singapore and we were not

disappointed. We felt quite relaxed as everything seemed strangely familiar

compared to India. The roads were more predictable: people drove in lanes,

obeyed traffic rules, stopped at traffic lights etc. English is also widely

spoken, shops were more modern and western like. It's amazing how 2 ex-English

colonies can be so different!

So we headed to the restaurant from last night for lunch before heading to Orchard

Road. We found the Aljunied MRT station about 10 minutes walk from our hotel.

It was all so simple! We bought a ticket at the machine, found where we wanted

to go on the map and followed the signs to the correct platform. It's as simple

as the London Underground, but much cleaner and less crowded. They don't use

paper tickets either, you get a plastic ticket which you return after your journey

and get a 1 dollar refund.

We got off at Orchard station which is exited through the ION mall. Orchard Road

is a road of malls. From what I can gather there are ---- malls. Walking down

the road you can smell the money! We passed Dolce & Gabbana,

Calvin Klein, Louis Vutton, Chanel, Versace, Abercrombie and Fitch...all the big

ones! We spent a happy few hours window shopping. We were amazed at how busy each mall

was and how much business they must get to all stay open, I don't think we saw

any vacant lots. There must be huge amounts of money in Singapore, when you think

about Southampton when not all the shops can afford to stay open in West Quay.

Anyway, we then got back on the MRT at Somerset and went to the Marina. The Marina

is'nt particularly picturesque, but is surrounded by hotels, office blocks and

a grand, upmarket mall. Along the promenade there is also the Art and Science museum, which

was unfortunately closed. It is housed in a very unnusual looking building shaped

like a bunch of banannas or an open hand facing palm upwards. Inside the mall was

a man-made canal and a gondola making trips up it, there was also a skating rink.

We walked over an elaborate bridge which was like a metal rope, from the bridge

you had a good view of Singapore's version of the the Eye. Across the river we came

to another mall where we decided to have something to eat. Eventually we picked

Sauce, to have a burger each, as we'd both been craving meat. The setting for

our meal was wonderful; sat outside with a view of the marina andd the light

show that started. The burgers were immense and washed down with a couple of beers-

it doesn't get much better than that! However the price put a bit of a dampner

on things (even though it was english prices, this came as a bit of shock

compared to India!).

Another Long Day!

15.10.11 - 16.10.11

We got a taxi to Delhi airport at around 8am for a flight at midday. It took

nearly 3 hours to get to Bangok and our flight to Singapore was not til

7am the next morning. We had decided that it was not worth the money to pay

for a hotel and that we were going to stay at the airport. I think we both

regretted this once we got there and of course we couldn't check in for the

flight til 4am. So we found some benches near the check in desk to try and

get some sleep. Unfortunately it was freezing because of the airconditioning

and we ended up putting loads of layers on and getting inside our sleeping

bag sheets. But we managed to doze for a few hours and at 4am were able to

check our luggage in and go through to departures.

It was only a couple of hours to fly to Singapore and as soon as we arrived

we realised the next couple of days were going to be a much different

experience to what we had grown used to in India. We went straight to the

shuttle bus desk to enquire about getting to our hotel. They said instantly

that they could take us straight to our hotel door and to take a seat, they

would come and get us when the bus arrived in 10 minutes. Within 10

minutes we were on the bus and 15 minutes later we were dropped directly outside

our hotel. As simple as that!

Our hotel was pretty basic especially for the £35 we were paying per night!

We got a couple of hours sleep and then went to explore the local area with

bags of washing as we were told that there was a laudrette nearby. We had

read that the hotel was in the red light district and as soon as we got to

the corner of our road this was apparent! There were crowds of men hanging

around and the cafes nearby were full of men. There seemed to be a shortage

of girls working. Despite this it didn't feel threatening. Along the main

road there were lots of foodcourts with tables on the road and loads of people,

mainly men, sat eating, drinking Carlsburg and socialising.

We eventually found the laundrette and spent an hour and half washing and drying

our clothes. After dropping our clean clothes back at the hotel we went to

find something to eat. We found a foodhall that seemed very popular and

examined all the menu boards to decide what we wanted to eat. The boards were

in English and Cantonese (I think). We decided on pork with rice and a wonton

and noodle soup. We didn't quite feel brave enough to try the pig intestines

or chilli crab just yet! It was a very enjoyable meal and we sat for a while

with some beers people watching before we headed back to bed.

Incredible India by Train

This is my poor attempt at poetry but it might give you a flavour of life and train journeys in India!

Lazer- beam sun in a fierce-blue biro sky,

Everywhere sprawled sleeping bodies on a urine-doused platform,

Occasional cardboard emtombed motorcycles between stacked sugar cube parcels,

Quick! Rumbling, rolling engine prompting mounting leaps and scrambling.

Chukka, chukka, chukka, baddoom, baddoom.

Chukka, chukka, chukka, baddoom, baddoom.

Glowing, drifting lantern in a warm, cobalt ocean sky.

Crammed pastel coloured match-box homes topped by rusting, rippling roofs,

Garbage gardens complete with sewage ponds and a bare bottomed baby fountain,

Smiling, crouching families and neighbours chatting, cooking, cricket-playing.

Chukka, chukka, chukka, baddoom, baddoom.

Chukka, chukka, chukka, baddoom, baddoom.

Sinking, dull candle glow in a hazy, burning-embers sky,

A platform foraging, charcoal warthog with a pendulum tail.

Waves of unhurried people with teapot arms, washing across the tracks,

Flat patchwork emerald fields and wiry cotton-ball trees rushing by.

Chukka, chukka, chukka, baddoom, baddoom.

Chukka, chukka, chukka, baddoom, baddoom.

Plummeting pale torch beam in a washed out ghostly sky.

Chomping, angular buffalos and a solitary shrouded shepherd wandering home,

Clothes waving like rainbow seaweed in the murkey waters of the wide mirrored river.

Rude silhouettes smoking in a smoggy lagoon sky.

Chukka, chukka, chukka, baddoom, baddoom.

Chukka, chukka, chukka, baddoom, baddoom.

Roaming UFO's in an ebony, space abyss sky.

Inside: stern-feeling stares, affirmative head-shaking and aristocratic questioning,

The persistant, insistant vendors lullaby of 'Chai chai' up and down the carriage,

Muffled soothing snores like water down a plug hole.

Chukka, chukka, chukka, baddoom, baddoom.

Chukka, chukka, chukka, baddoom, baddoom.

Last night in India

14.10.11

We had a late checkout on the room so we didn't leave until 2pm when we took a rickshaw to the train station for our 4pm train back to Delhi. The journey went without a hitch, we'd actually had our seats confirmed and were no-longer on the waiting list, so that was a result!

We'd booked a room at the Sunrise hotel. So when we got to Delhi about 9pm we got in a rickshaw and he seemed to know where we were going. We got to Channa Market fine, but the address I had got for the guesthouse did not give us anymore information. So he drove us around for a bit, it turned out Channa Market was quite a large area and couldn't find our hotel anywhere. The rickshaw driver kept stopping and asking people and we just ended up going round in circles. I had 2 phone numbers for the hotel, 1 no-longer worked and the other they would not pick up! So we tried to find and internet cafe to get by email confirmation and see if there was anymore info I'd missed, but they were all closing. After driving around for about half an hour and our rickshaw driver kindly persevering with us, we stopped at

another hotel and asked there. They allowed me to use their internet and the manager saw the address and called the place and hurrah directed the rickshaw driver. he even sent his security guard to go with us and direct him. This time we drove in to a kind of housing estate and saw a sign on the top floor of one of the blocks. It was a nice block! So the rickshaw driver dropped us off there, we asked the ladies henna painting outside, if had the right place and they confirmed we had. We trudged up with our bags to the top floor and no sign of any life, in fact the apartment was padlocked from the outside!

So we tried the apartment below, no joy.

By this time it was past 10pm and we were getting pretty pissed off! So we went back downstairs and out. We started to explain to the group outside what the problem was and an older man asked Martin to go with him and he would sort it out. So I sat outside and waited! After about 10 minutes, I was starting to get worried, Martin returned with a man who without saying very much or explaining took us back upstairs and showed us to our room.

The apartment/hotel was actually very nice and he made us tea and toast before we went to bed. But there was no apology or explaination as to why there had not been anyone there.

This last night in Inida, I think sums up our whole experience pretty well! On the one hand you have so many people, like the rickshaw driver, who will go out of their way to help you (direct you/offer you their meal/make sure you have a seat on the bus/offer you cream for a cut etc). Then you have the frustration over the completely pointless bureaucracy and paperwork thatis purely for show and the complete incompetence . It didn't even occur to the person in the hotel to explain or apologise, nor the train conductor to explain why he has put an extra 3 people in your carriage, no announcements to explain that a train is running late, no apology that staff at a bus station put you on the wrong bus or that they serve your food up an hour later than they said so you miss you your bus!!!!!

Incredible India!

I'm actually really sad to leave. I think Martin has been amazing, he has had such a great attitude. Whereas I might be tempted to get cross at the hotel manager or brood on it, Martin will just say what's the point, it won't achieve anything, it's fine now. And he's right, it's all part of the experience.

Birthday 2 Taj Mahal at sunrise

13.10.11

We woke up in time to walk the km o the ticket office and back to queue up and get in to the Taj when it opened it's gates at sunrise. The queue wasn't very long but it was a real palava to get in and it kind of took the excitement and anticipation away. men and women had to queue separately. Each person had to go through a metal detector and be frisked. They also had a list of things that you weren't allowed to take in, including food, torches etc. The signs said they provided lockers for these things but of course they didn't and they just confiscated them. There were bag checks taking place. I seemed to have got in the wrong queue as I watched for 20 minutes as a 20 people behind me but had to joined the parallel queue went through. Its seems our queue had the novice security guard who was taking every single thing out of each bag to check. She was rooting through my tissues, looking in my lipbalm, it

was worse than airport security!

Anyway we go through the East gate and then you work towards the north to enter another gate and thats when you get your first sighting of the Taj itself (over the heads of a hundred other people!). That's when you reach the boulevard lined by trees and the long thin ponds with the Taj on a raised rectangular platform at the end with a tall tower at each corner and then on either side is a red stone mosque/palace and the river Yamuna behind.

We headed straight to thr Taj and inside to the actual mauseleum where Mumtaz Mahal and her husband tombs are, they are actually buried further below. We were lucky because it was still very quiet and we could walk around in peace. I was a amazed to see that inside there was the odd bit of grafitti-what sacrilege. It's really difficult to grasp how big and how perfect the Taj is unless you have been. It's incredible to look up inside the large arched entrance and see the contours of the marble. The inscriptions have been painted so that they appear to be exactly the same size whether at the bottom or top which must have quite a feat.

We sat in awe for quite along time on the steps of the mosque adjacent and watched the light change throughout the morning. The shadows created by the arches of the Taj are so soft and gentle. Throughout the morning the marble began to appear brighter and brighter. We were really lucky because there was still alot of the time when you could frame a photo of the Taj without a single person in it. However when we were leaving at 10.30 it was much much busier, with hundred of people walking up the avenue to the monument.

After a fantastic morning we went back to Shila for a yummy omelette breakfast and then walked to the Radisson. By the time we rocked up our 5 star hotel, having walked 2km with out packs in midday heat, we were not looking the part. Nonetheless we were greeted with a fruit cocktail and a cold flannel. The we were taken to our 'Taj' view room! It was very plush. We were so happy to be somewhere so clean and comfortable. We had a lovely afternoon snoozing and then relaxing by the pool, sat in the jacuzzi part drinking a fosters from a can and eating peanuts! We finished off the day with a meal and a few glasses of wine (big treat!).

Birthday 1

12.10.11

We left the guesthouse and swiftly as possible and boarded the train to Agra which was only 2 hours 50 minutes. We were both very excited at the prospect of seeing the Taj.

When we got to Agra we got in a rickshaw the East gate of the Taj Mahal, where we found easily the guesthouse Shila. Where for once we got lucky-theyhad one room available and it was lovely - very clean and peaceful. We had lunch in the courtyard garden and then were told (by our guesthouse and tourist information that from the West gate we could get a free bus to Agra Fort. So we navigated our way around the wall of the Taj to the West gate where we could see the buses. There was no obvious signs to say where they were going or a booth or anything. After a few minutes we spotted a driver so we asked him and he shook his head and

said to wait 10 minutes. So we sat and wait, in the meantime we were constantly being hassled by rickshaw drivers. So I went and asked a group of policemen, they said there was no bus and pointed to a bunch of uniformed that guys that worked for the Agra development department, lounging on large go-carts. So I asked them, they said, 'No bus' but we could pay them to take us. In this time we had seen several groups of Indian tourists being shepherded on to buses and driven away. Eventually we asked the first bus driver again and this time he told us there was no bus. We realised that no one was willing to take us for free even if there was supposed to be a free bus.

We decided to walk up the road a bit as we didn't want to give any business to the drivers that have been continuously hassling us even when we repeatedly said no. And a bit further up the road we negotiated with a cycle rickshaw driver. he took us through a grand park up to Agra Fort.

At the entrance to the Fort we got our first glimpse of the domes of the Taj. It was suprisigly big even 4 or so km's away. Inside the walls of the fort there were good views of the Taj further up the river. The fort is remarkably well preserved built of red sandstone with several marble arched structures inside. Emporer Shahjahan, who built the Taj as a memorial to wife, apparently died here supposedly gazing at his tribute. He was imprisoned here by his son, who had succeeded him. Although most Historians now agree that the 74 year old probably died due to all his drug taking and sex!!

We decided to walk back to the East gate through the park. It was lovely because we didn't get any hassle! When we got to the East Gate we continued up the road away from the Taj to a nature walk along the side of the river. By this time it was close to sunset, so we found a viewing spot at the top of a hill to watch. Unfortunately you couldn't quite see the Taj and the sun at the same time, but we got the gist and the sky was beautiful.

It is Martin's birthdat so to celebrate we had decided to postpone his birthday to the next day when we were actually going to the Taj and then we booked a posh hotel for the evening. So tonight we just had a nice meal in our hotel and got an early night so we would be up before sunrise the next morning.

In transit to Agra.

11.10.11

We got to Bangalore around 6.30am in the morning. We had been told that to get to the airport was very expensive by taxi and that Bangalore itself was very spread-out with not alot to see so we'd decided to go straight to airport to wait for a flight to Delhi this evening. So we were in no rush! We had a horrible breakfast in the station and then made our way to the huge bus station across the road to get a shuttle bus to airport.

We actually had quite a pleasant day at the airport, reading and having coffee etc until our flight at 5.45pm. Although they had some pretty ridiculous security systems. Men and women have to get in separate queues then they insist you put a baggage label on each item of hand-luggage, but aren't interested in you filling the label out. The idea is they stamp it to say your hand-luggage has gone through security. Fool proof! However Martin hadn't realised the purpose of this and they hadn't stamped his label. So when we got to the gate to board the plane

they wouldn't let him on. So they made hime go all the way back through security! How you could have got in to the departure lounge without your bagage being x-rayed I don't know but there you go!

It was then a brief 2.5 hour flight to Delhi, which seemed pretty painless after the journeys we had already done especially the miles we would have to do by train.

In Delhi we decided to head to the train station we would be leaving from the next morning and we had been told there were loads of places to stay there. They weren't wrong! however the area around Nizamuddin station was carnage! there were rickshaws parked anywhere and everywhere. It was extremely dirty (which is saying something for India), flied everywhere. By this time it was 10pm so we had no real choice, but we didn't feel particularly comfortable or safe. Anyway we found a room. It wasn't nice, it was up loads of floors

and was really quite dirty and he wanted 700R for it - no way. We knocked him down to 400R, which was still ridiculous compared to some of the nice rooms we stayed in, but we knew we were just sleeping then leaving. Then the cheeky bugger wanted us to go and pay for him to photocopy our passports! We told him where to go!

So unfortunately neither of us slept very well particuarly as there was a powercut for hours during the night so there was no fan and it was so noisy with continuous beeping from the rickshaws. So poor Martin woke up in this s**t hole for his birthday! And I woke up covered in insect bites again!

Leaving Hampi

10.10.11

We woke up very relieved this morning because we were both feeling quite a lot better and we knew we would be on a all night train this evening. So we met Thomas and Regina for breakfast. The plan was to hire bicycles and explore this side of the river where we knew there was a lake and a temple about a 25 minute ride away through some villages. Unfortunately I wasn't feeling up to cycling in the heat so we took a rickshaw instead up to the lake.

The lake was much bigger than we anticipated, all the locals told us it was fine to swim but we saw signs telling us there were crocodiles so we weren't convinced! Around the edges of the lake however, there

were buffalo submerged in the water chewing loudly, which was a good sign! There were beautiful views

over the valley towards Hampi, of paddi fields and palm trees.

After an hour or so of relaxing in the shade and Martin paddling with Thomas, we headed back to the guesthouse

for a late lunch. We then had to cross the river at about 5pm to then get a rickshaw to Hospet inorder to get

our prospective trains/buses. So with careful negotiation Thomas, Regina, Angela, Martin and I squeezed in to

2 rickshaws to go to Hospet. It was like something out of the Great Escape but in rickshaws! We started off

behind but quickly swerved to overtake our fellow travellers. Within 30 seconds we had been overtaken again. We spent the rest of the journey driving bumper to bumper with the rickshaw in front watching their indicator mistakenly come on eveyday they pressed the brake pedal!

But we got to a restaurant in Hospet safely, to have a meal together before we left. We ate in a very posh hotel restaurant that was recommended in our guidebook. It had a lovely atmosphere because the tables were arranged around a dramatically lit swimming pool with silver service (not that the prices represented this). The finishing touch was the loud building work that was going on on the far side of the pool!!

About 8 o'clock we exchanged contact details and said our goodbyes and headed to the train station for the overnight train to Bangalore.

Bad Times!

09.10.11

Today was a complete wipeout unfortunately. We were planning on doing more exploring but were both in bed most of the day with stomach cramps, headache and sickness. This was made worse by the fact that there is no electricity in our hut during the day so we couldn't have the fan on and it was uncomfortably hot!

The Royal complex

08.10.11

We wanted to make the most of the cool morning today so we headed out early. We got a rickshaw the 3 or 4 km to the Archaelogical museum, to try and get our bearings around the Royal monuments complex which is south of Hampi Bazaar. There is a good birds eye scale model of the ancient city - Vijayangar.

From there we walked across lots of scrub land through various ruins to try and find the royal palace. All the ruins were pretty deserted, we eventually found our way to the royal enclosure, where there was a tiered pyramid building, with a platform on top, within the complex there was also a series of aqueducts to transport water. By this time it was getting really hot and was about midday, so we had a cold drink in the shade and then made our way towards some ruins we could see in the distance that looked rather grand!

This was a walled complex, which housed some of the Queen's buildings. There was stunning 2 storied building with loads of ornate archways on the ground floor called the Lotus Mahal and we also saw the Elephant Stables. As we were wondering around we were mobbed several times by groups of teenagers wanting photos taken with us!

Next we took a rickshaw back to the river walk, as we walking we saw Regin and Thomas in the distance. They joined us for the walk towards the Vittala temple, on the way we were able to point out to them all the strange and wonderful things we had witnessed on our walk yesterday. After, being accosted by several groups who wanted photos taken with us we entered the large gateway that led in to the Vittala temple, which was extremely impressive. Inside there were several smaller temples and buildings all very grand, swarmed with loads of Indian tourists and great views towards the other ruins against a backdrop of strange red boulders balanced precariously.

By this point we were pretty exhausted so we headed back to our guest house. This evening we got chatting to the Israeli couple we briefly chatted to in Palolem and had got the same train as us, and Italian man, Angela, and a English guy, as we ate and played cards.

Hampi Proper

07.10.11

We had a lazy morning, getting up for a schnitzel and falafel lunch (Israeli influence!).

We ate our lunch chatting to an Indian family who were holidaying from Bangalore. Then

ventured across the river to Hampi Bazaar. We walked all the way up the main street

know as Hampi Bazaar. This was a fascinating walk as the stree is lined with columned

ruins which our now inhabitated by families, stalls and restaurants. Quite a few

have been painted bright turquoises and blues and are adorned with washing lines. At

either end of the bazaar is a temple. We had our backs to the Virupaksha temple and

ahead of us was the Nandi temple. As we got to this temple we noticed inside the

collonade dating to possibly the 1500's is housed 2 police stations! We clambered up the

rocks to the first temple and scrambled up something resembling a path between hug bolders

until we saw below us the ruins of another large temple complex called the Tiruvengalanath

Temple, made up of a large coutyard and 2 large, grand ornate gateways, with elaborate

brickwork crowning each of them. We walked through the gateway to the west and before us

was a wide street with a sheltered columned structure lining it on either side for perhaps

200 metres. Here you could imagine a bustling market, trading precious stones and metals.

On our left was a square courtyard sunk in to the ground with a grand plinth in the middle.

As we walked down the road we followed the path over huge flat bolders passed numerous ruins

towards the river. Then we followed the path along the river, where we saw people washing

their clothes and themselves. There were also coracles, circular whicker and plastic

vessals about 6 feet across, bobbing across the water. We continued along the path, coming

across huge masses of cobwebs entombing tall weeds. I didn't like to imagine the spider

that had made these. We also came across an ancient looking tree that had a small temple

built in to and hanging from it were eery, alien cacoon looking parcels of rocks and powders

hanging in long clumbs from the branches.

Finally, after braving the herd of strange-eared cows (they looked like there ears had been

cut in half with scissors with perforated blades), we reached the final temple, the Vitthala

temple. However we decided to leave this for tomorrow as you had to pay 250R and this included

another temple that was too far away to see today. So we headed back along the river, taking a

more direct route that stuck to the river side all the way back to the bazaar. About half way

along you reach the Rama Temple which at this time was covered with around 40 monkeys playing

and climbing the pyramid of the temple. There were several baby monkeys clinging to their mothers,

occasionally braving it to race to wrestle with a playmate and then racing back to the safety

of their mothers chest again. There was one poor monkey, who had a very pink face which was

really scarred and he had a huge wound that his teeth were poking through. Very disturbing!

The last ferry across is at 6pm unfortunately, so we headed back with plenty of time. Back at

the guesthouse we showered and changed then met Regina and Thomas for dinner.

Arriving in Hampi.

06.10.11

This morning we had an early start. The taxi picked us up at 6am, because the

local bus did not run early enough to get us to Margao. At Margao we had a

short wait before the train arrived. At least this time the boards showed

what platform the train was arriving! While we waited we had a couple of

samosas each, they were 10R each and so tasty, nothing like you would taste

in the UK.

This time we were AC3 but we were lucky because along the sides of the carriage

there are 3 bunks each side and then at the end there is just 2 bunks, so

you have more room. During the day the bunks are not made up, and our 2 bunks

were folded down and there were 2 chairs and a table instead. There were 2

other Europeans in our compartment, along with an Indian family of 3. The

couple were German, Regina and Thomas. While I was dozing Martin started up

a conversation with them (of course!). We spent the remainder of the journey

comparing our experiences in India and quizzing each-other on life in our

respective countries! They, along with the Indian couple, were interested in

the riots in London and why they came about. It was depressing telling them that

most of the people involved had no incentive apart from opportunism. In Germany

they use water cannons readily during protests, we were told. We also talked

about patriotism and Regina told us that a minister in Germany had spoken about

being proud of being German in a speech and that this had been controversial.

People are still haunted by their past and feel ashamed. Perhaps this will change

in the next generation, as the last of that generation passes away. It was

interesting to find out that the Germans to do not know the word 'swastika', I

wonder where this word comes from. We have seen alot of these symbols here, they

are exactly the same, but here the swastika is a religious symbol, representing

luck.

About 4 hours in to a our journey, feeling quite comfortable and enjoying our trip,

4 more people got on. They had been on the waiting list and the conductor had

allocated them our seats! The only thing to do was suck it up and budge up! So we

had 12 people in a 8 person berth for 3 hours, but it was fine, cosy!

When we got to Hospet we jumped in a rickshaw and drove the half and hour to Hampi.

It was interesting driving through the villages, seperated by runied temples. When

we got to the riverwe had to get a small ferry 100 metres across the river to

where we were staying. On the ferry we hooked up with Thomas and regina again and we

walked with them to the guest house we had been recommended by Jon-Moghli.

We were told there was only one room available at the moment but another room would be

available at 6pm. So we locked all 4 of our bags in the room and settled down with a

beer. The setting for this guesthouse is absolutely incredible. From the restaurant

you see a paddy field, with odd palm tree throughout and the spots of orange flowers.

The field reaches down to the river which is backed by red hills covered in large

boulders and you can watch the sun set in this vista! There is a very chilled out

atmosphere, lots of people (mainly Israelis) lounging around or doing yoga, or other

hippy s**t!!

So we had some beers and a meal together and every so often went to check whether the

room was available. of course 6 o'clock actually meant 8 o'clock but who can

complain in this setting!

More Chilled Out!

05/10/11

This morning I awoke to find my bed bug bites were hardly noticeable due to the healing powers of sea water. I was so chuffed! We had a relaxed start, going to a nearby cafe for fruit and muesli, before wandering around town which took a whole 10 minutes! We then walked down the beach towards what appeared to a small island that you had to wade to. Here

there were loads of rocks scattered in the water between this beacha and another rainforest covered island. We weren't brave enough to cross on to the next island because we were worried about the tide but we spend a good hour exploring the rock pools on this side, watching large numbers of crabs scuttle away as we approached and birds of prey circling over head.

After another refreshing swim we went back to the bar for a snacky lunch and lassi. This is the life!

Then we decided to go back to the room for a shower and then go for a drink before dinner. So Martin stripped off and went to turn the water on - no water, not unusual! Martin was livid, determined not to put his sandy clothes on or clean clothes. So he sat naked perched on the edge of a chair, arms folded, waiting! I had a little giggle to myself as he sulked for a little while. However half an hour later, he tried again, not daring to get his hopes up and fortunately

it came on!

This evening we went back to the bar on the beach to watch the sun set overa lassi and then had some dinner.

It's been a lovely, relaxing couple of days in Goa but I am looking forward to going to the 'ghost city' of Hampi tomorrow.

Another Epic Journey - Slightly More Epic Than we Anticipated!

03.10.11

Today I woke up feeling a little apprehensive because Martin and I were going to spent a morning at a nearby International school. We were picked up at 7am by the children's school bus and on we got with all our packs, causing a bit of a stir.

When we arrived at about 8, we were taken to the cafeteria for a coffee, where most of the staff seemed to be (novel!)before home room began at 8.20. I was taken to begin my day with PYP1. Martin went to spend the day in the secondary department.

There were 11 children in the class, and 7 of them were just being taken off for their EAL lessons so I stayed with the remainder and we did our diary writing. I was then taken

for a tour of the school and got to find out a bit more about the IB programme. At 10.30 it was break time so I was taken to the cafeteria again for my breakfast! Afterwards I joined the equivalent of a year 4 class who were just beginning a new 'topic'. There were 18 children in the class with 10 or so children with EAL. While I was in the class, there was a class TA, another TA who seemed to be 1:1, a SEN TA and EAL teacher! Afetr the lesson the teacher very kindly talked me through the last unit she taught them and showed me their work. Throughout the rest of the morning I spent time with the SEN department talking through how they are organised and then went to watch an EAL lesson.

There was a great atmosphere at the school and everyone was so kind and helpful towards both of us. It had then been organised for us to get on the school bus back in to Pune and be dropped off at the train station as we were heading off to Margao in South Goa.

When we got to the station we had about an hour to kill. The train was due to arrive at 4.20 and leave at 4;30 and again we knew we had to be ready to get on at the correct carriage. So we were watching the boards in anticipation to find out what platform we needed to be at. 4:20 arrived and no news. Helpful passersby told us we should go to platform 1, but there was a train that was due after ours sat at that platform.

So we waited.....and waited. The train on platform 1 left at 5:10 and then our train appeared on the platform boards. At this time there had been no mention of a delay and a platform still hadn't appeared on the main station boards. Anyway as if by magic(!) the train appeared at 5.30 and we eventually left at about 6pm.

We were in another AC2 sleeper carriage, along with Pandadeep, a middle aged spring manufacturer. He was incredibly friendly and helpful. He told us hie mother was from Belgium and he had gone to university there. He spoke French, English and Hindi

fluently, and had lived for a period in America. We were talking about the economic down turn in the UK and high unemployment and he told us that unemployment should be very low in India, that in his factory he is always short of workers

in all areas. he said it's got to the stage that if someone isn't working to the standard he would expect and picks them up on it, they are in a position to say okay and go and find another job. This came as a great suprise to us as we have encountered

so many able bodied beggars. We told him about the well dressed lady and her son who had been walking past us at the train station, saw us, turned back and asked us for money! Such opportunism! He explained that he usually bought food for beggars,

because there are lots of rackets going on when people are making others beg for them and collecting the money.

So another night on a train passed and our train pulled in to Margao at around 6.30am (late). We were heading to Palolem and knew we had to get a bus there so we jumped in a rickshaw. At the bus station they told us we needed to get on a bus to Panjim and then change buses. We thought this a bit strange because we had been told there was a direct bus. Anyhow we

got on the bus, packed with people going to work, with our backpacks on our laps. All set and then at some invisible/silent signal, from what we could tell, everyone started getting on a bus and on to another smaller (!) one. So we trailed off last and got onto the other bus. Having to fight our way to the back of the bus with out packs and squish ourselves on to the back seat with 3 other people. Off we went.

Half an hour later we arrived in Panjim, where they told us we had to go back to Margao to get the bus to Palolem!! I have to say at this point I felt like crying! We have had many situations like this since being India. In the UK if someone had

cocked up you could vent at the person/company, get an apology or a refund and feel much better! But here you have to just

swallow it, accept it as part of the experience, because no-one would care if you complained here! The people at Panjim thought it was hilarious!

So we got back on the bus to Margao, again squashed on the back seat with our packs on our laps. I was thinking if I felt sick on the journey everyone around me was screwed! Then another man gets on the bus and tells us to move up because he wants to squish in aswell! We were very good and didn't tell him where to go, but dutifully budged up until I was practically sat on the girl next to me's lap, because this is 'normal' here!

Another 40 minutes back to Margao then we found the bus to Palolem. Now, Palolem is 30 km's away, so you might expect that it might 40-45 minutes. Of course not, this is India. Over an hour and a half later we arrived, having only added 4 hours to our journey!! I have to say I was particularlly fractious because at the hotel we stayed in in Aurangabad there must have

been bed bugs because I am literally covered in horrible looking bed bug bites and they are itchy. So I was hot, tired and being driven mildly cretinous by the my bites and the ridiculousness of travelling in India!

Anyway it was all worth it when we had found a room and stepped on to the stunning white sandy curve of beach at Palolem, edged with palm trees!

We walked the length of the beach, immediately relaxed, and had a quick dip. The water was so warm and shallow, you had to walk out a long way before it reached your waist. Once we had dried off we went and sat in one of the only beach side bars that is open, because it is off season. We could sit right at the front on cushions on the floor with a wonderful

unobscured view down to the sea, with only the occasional passer-by walking past, if you didn't turn your head too much! We enjoyed Goan sausage in a rich chilly sauce with roti and a fish curry. Martin even had a beer, as beers are about half the price here in Goa. Afterwards I fell asleep in the sun and then we went back to our room for a siesta before dinner.

We had dinner in an amazing setting, at the other end of the beach. Again sat virtually on the beach. This was a very up-market restaurant compared to what we were used to, and the prices reflected it. However it was highly recommended and we were prepared to spend a fiver on good, fresh seafood!! So we indulged ourselves with Calamari Tikka and a prawn biryiani.

It was fantastic and such a great relaxing atmosphere.

The 'Real' India

02.10.11

Today was to be the day for exploring the countryside around Pune with the help of our guide Jon. We were very excited at the prospect of seeing some 'real' India and we were not disappointed!

First things first: a hearty breakfast. Jon took us to one of his local haunts to have a traditional breakfast. we each had a Dhosa, which is like a crispy gound rice parcel slightly flavoured. You can have it plain with curd and other gravy or you can it with potato masala inside; which is delicious.

Next we headed to the train station to get on one of the local trains, which would be heading back towards Mumbai. I really enjoyed the train journey. Like all the trains in India, from what I've seen, you can't move between carriages so this means you have to be ready when the train comes to run/walk alongside the train following the carriage you want to be in.

We had booked a first class ticket, not that you would know this from inside the carriage! What I most enjoyed about the journey was being able to stand by the open doors, hanging on and sticking your head out if you felt brave enough, with the breeze cooling you down and India rushing by. At the stations I'd attract quite a lot of attention, children and parents

waving and staring! Because it is just after monsoon season everything was luch and green with field upon field of wild bright orange flowers. After an hour of this beautiful scenary we arrived at our stop and had about a minute to jump off before the train pulled away again without warning.

Now this would have been quite a tricky day for us without John, but because he can speak Hindi and had done this before it was possible. We walked through the little town we had arrived in, admiring all the small shops and stalls. Along the way John was stopping people to ask where we could get the bus. We got to a junction where there were lots of jeeps (shared taxis) and rickshaws. John asked a rickshaw driver how we could get to Kamshet(pronouced Cum S**t, which of course Martin couldn't get over!). Before we knew we were surrounded by a group of men, who John was conversing with in Hindi, trying to negotiate a decent price with. In between they were chatting in Mahajariti (the 'local' language of the state). The best price we could get was 400R to take us to the mouth of the cave. We knew this was extortionate, because for one

seat in the jeep ot was 15R, but we also knew we could be waiting for ages for the jeep to fill up and full up meant 15 people! So we agreed that for 400R he would drive us there and back.

So we hopped in expectant to leave....we waited..nothing, he would not be rushed. Then out of the wood work came what felt like the whole village and in to the jeep they jumped! WE got going, along the way he picked up 3 more people. Now,I'm not going to lie we did feel a bit cheated! But we thought well this is okay if the villagers get a free ride, we don't mind subsidising their journey! But no, the cheeky b***er then charged every person that got out! Anyway he drove us out of the town and passed a small village until we reached a track at the foot of a steep hill, up the hill we could see the mouth of a cave.

It was a steep climb up to the cave, but the views were stunning, over the paddy fields with a small river tickling through and some of the village homes dotted around. When reached the top there was 2 small caves. The first being a temple,not sure of what faith, possibly Jain, and the next cave consisted of a oval room with small compartments all the way round,

which could have been quarters for the monks.

We made our way back down and called the jeep driver to tell him we would be ready for him to come and pick us up, he said he was on his way. So we ambled back through the village. Here people seem suprised to see us and smiled readily, it was really lovely. We even asked some of the locals if there was anywhere we could by a chai, and they directed us in to the main village further down, it didn't occur to them to sell us some chai, which felt quite refreshing!

After a while we had heard nothing from the jeep driver so called him again and he had turned his phone off! We waited on the road thinking he might show up yet. Of course he didn't so we jumped on a local bus when it went past. It's a good job insisted on giving him only half his money!

After our exertions we decided to get some lunch in a Dharba, where they served us up a delicious snack. We served with soft white bread rolls, more like European bread than we had tried yet, and a small dish of lentils and beans. They even brought us out a sweet desert to try.

Then it was time to head back to Pune. Once we got to Pune we walked home and John led us through the slum area of Pune. People didn't really know what to make of us, but mostly people were really smiley and friendly, no one asked us for money. All the children wanted to say hello and for us to take a picture of them. Martin was happy because he got to join in a game of football. This area was actually fairly well off judging by the bustling market running down the main street and the homes had obviously been there quite a while and were permanent. Although the home were very basic and cramped, they were all very bright and colourful, which was added to by the rainbow of washing that was hung outside most of the homes and down tiny side streets. As we made our way down thin alley ways to the river, there were lots of children

playing football, on their bikes or playing bat and ball. Women were washing their cooking utensils in the street,filling large jugs with water from a communal tap. Once we reached the river and looked along the bank, it was covered with rubbish, children playing amongst it, a few people washing clothes and themselves in the water.

We were beginning to attract quite a crowd as we walked away from the river back the way we came so we decided to head back to John's.

It was a fantastic day.

A friendly face in Pune

01.10.11

We arrived last night at about 11 o'clock and were met by Martin's old school friend, Jon. Jon has been so helpful throughout the 2 weeks we have been here so far, always on the end of the phone to help. He took us back to his amazing apartment, in the posh part of Pune and we realised we were going to be well looked after this weekend and

immediately relaxed.

Driving in to Pune, which is a famous university town in India, it apearred so much more modern with new developments all along the road in, with large shopping complexs and hotels etc. Other cities even though in places are quite new, feel like mazes, very run down and dirty. The buildings put anywhere with shacks in between. But this felt more organised and

cosmopitan, and that more money had been put in to the city.

Anyway, today we were treated to an expensive chinese buffet, at a fancy restaurant. The food was superior! I was most impressed with the selection of tiny desserts that you could choose from. Throughout the afternoon we managed to arrange and book the rest of our trip in India, all our trains and flight back to Delhi.

We noticed some more beauracratic custome as we were going around Pune. For example when you got to a supermarket/shop you have to show ID and check your bag in outside the shop. Then as you leave the security has to stamp your receipt. Why?! Does the security guard read it - no. Does he know why he's doing this? There seems to be a lot of procedures like

this, that are just for show, that don't actually serve any real purpose.

This evening we have just chilled out with a take away, beer and shisha. Good times! Thanks Jon, great host x

More Caves at Ajanta

30.09.11

Another early start and 11 hours of travelling, but all worth it!

We got up and had breakfast and checked out of our hotel (they only charged us for 1 night-bonus, which helped us to overlook how dirty and incompetent they had been generally!) and they agreed to lock our bags up for the day.

Then walked down to the bus station to get on a local semi-delux bus to Ajanta. I was

aprehensive about this bus especially when we saw it, not looking very road worthy! But the good news was that we got on the bus first and managed to get a window seat and also had a seat each-bonus!

The journey was fascinating, everything looked so green after the monsoon season and we passed through lots of small towns, seeing tiny barber shops, butchers with chickens in cages, fruit stands with the vendor only fruit or veg.

When we got of the bus, we got led through all the shops by the entrance before we could get on a shuttle bus that would take us the 4km to the caves. On arrival we climbed up a steep hill before we had our first view of the caves, which was stunning. We tried to imagine being the first of the East India Company troops in 1819, guided by a scout from the

local tribe, to see this view. The caves are in the walls of a horse-shoe ravine carved by a the Wagora river, which is lush and green after the monsoons. The caves date back to the 2nd century BC and at their peak were the home of 200 Buddhist monks, which is hard to imagine.

The caves walls are adorned with stunning paintings which still remain to varying extents trhoughout the 28 caves. So along with statues and elaborate carved pillars, the ceilings were painted with repetitive tile-like patterns and murals, in reds,oranges and blues.

There is a curse supposedly attached to the caves because several early attempts to document the paintings at the caves have been doomed, with collections of reproductions, that have taken 27 years to copy, destroyed and attempts to preserve the paintings with varnish in 1920 causing more damage.

We spent a happy few hours admiring the 2000+ year old paintings and then began our journey back to Aurangabad (2.5hrs). We returned to the hotel to pick up our bags (and this pretty much sums up the hotel) and we trotted down to the room to pick them up where there was much confusion, with 2 or 3 people running up and down the stairs apparently to find the key

to the room, with no avail. A few minutes later, an eager chappy turns up grinning with a pairs of pliers. We thought okay, sensible he's going to try to cut the padlock. Oh no, he proceeds to whack the padlock with the pliers instead. Martin and I are looking at each other in disbelief, trying to stifle laughs. After a few minutes the matey starts giggling to himself as he realises this is probably no the most successful course of action! Luckily at this point the key is found!

We headed to the bus station to find lunch nearby. We rushed in to a small cafe and said we had a bus in a half hour would it be possible to grab soome lunch in that time? yes, yes of course sir, we 'll hurry. An hour later, with not apology or acknowledgement our lunch appeared!!

Then on to Pune (5 hours)..........

Ellora Caves

29.09.11

Our train finally arrived in to Aurangabad at about 4.40am and by 5am we were showering and climbing into bed for a couple of hours kip before heading out. It was such a relief to be clean and in a bed, although it didn't feel very clean, thus completing a journey of about 40 hours. We had managed to arrange to get in a shared taxi to go to Ajanta caves leaving at 8.30am.

We got up in time to get directions from reception and then walk to the tour company to get picked up, still pretty exhausted but looking forward to the day ahead. We followed the directions we'd been given and lo and behold the tour company was nowhere to be seen. By this time we were running late so thought we'd walk back to our hotel and ask the reception to call the tour company and tell them the situation. However this seemed a rather difficult request, the receptionist couldn't find the number even though they deal with this company everyday. When we provided the number that apparently wasn't correct and they seemed at a loss as to what to do. A few minutes later the reception phone range and it was our tour company. When the phone was handed to Martin, they wanted to know what had happened because they had apparently come to the hotel to pick us up and the receptionist had told them we were still asleep! So we had missed our tour.

A little annoying, but it actually turned out for the best, because we realised we were actuallu really tired and probably weren't going to last the whole day at Ajanta, which was 100 odd km's away. So we ended up taking a taxi out to Ellora caves,only 30km instead.

The caves were incredible! There are 34 caves dating from the 500 - 870AD. There are Buddhist, Hindu and Jain caves. Probably the most impressive was the Kailash Temple which took 100 years to complete and 4 generations to carve downwards through

the rock. It is more like an elaborate sculpture and is imporssible to conceive the amount of work that it took to create it and the vision it must have taken.

The rest actually are caves. Cave 10 is a Buddhist temple, with a curved domed roof carved in to the rock and a huge Buddha statue at the back. Many of the Buddhist and Hindu caves have spherical pillars beautifully carved and elaborate carvings of Buddha or Hindu Gods. Several of the temples are more than 1 storey, with a couple being 3 storeys high. We spent a good few hours exploring every knook and cranny of the caves.

Next our taxi took us to visit various different sights around Aurangabad and Ellora. We briefly visited Deogirl fortress,Moghul (and muslim) tombs at Khuldabad. We were also taken to a Jain temple and outside they set up a little market where people were selling flowers and other charms and spices to take to the temple as offerings.

By about 3 pm we were dead on our feet so went back to the hotel for a siesta. Then early evening we ventured out to Aurangabad to go and sort out our buses etc for tomorrow. There was a real buzz as we walked around the town. There were so many people around and a fun fair, in aid of a festival that celebrates the build up to Divali (that's as much as

we've been able to establish from talking to Indians!). We decided to walk along the main road up the bus station to book a local bus to Ajanta caves the next day and the bus to Pune. Along the way we had to cross a couple of roads. It's strange in India because pedestrains are as much a part of the junction as the vehicles, people stood in the middle of a busy crossroads with rickshaws and motorbikes weaving about them, judging the speed and distance of vehicles to slowly cross the road. I find it really difficult to cross as I am not decisive enough and you can't hesitate and cars won't stop! The other thing to realise on the roads is that traffic doesn't obey any rules including stopping at a traffic light or a crossing outside a school for blind children (we saw this for ourselves!). Roundabouts are entirely pointless in this country, it's everyman for himself, people cutting eachother up constantly! So it was quite a walk and unsuccessful as at

the bus station they were adamant that we didn't need to buy a ticket that we should buy them in the morning.

So we headed by to a nearby hotel for a dinner and then went to bed ready for another day of caves!

Mumbai

28.09.11

We arrived in Mumbai at 7.40am and went straight to the ticket booking office to try and book a train out to Aurangabad a.s.a.p. we were told that tourists couldn't book a ticket at this station and had to go to another station across town....mmmm, not sure why, suspicious. However we shared a taxi with a very serious, stressed out German man who had obviously had enough of being pestered and people trying to rip him off. He began to get very shirty with the taxi

driver because what the taxi driver wanted to charge was much more than what he had been told. Anyway we calmed him down and asked the driver to put the taxi on meter!

Whe we got there we went between the railway bookings of and the tourist office to decide whether train or bus would be a better option. We realised that we would have to wait to 9pm this evening to get on a train or bus, so we booked the train. Next we walked trhough central Mumbai with out packs about 1.5km to get to the station our train would be leaving from and hopefully could leave our packs, which we did.

We teh had 12 hours to kill around Mumbai. Which actually didn't prove to be too difficult, apart from the fact we were really tired and sweaty and dirty, still in the clothes we had put on the day before and slept in! We ended up having a really good day. Although I have too say that I was very cranky, finding it difficult to be polite to people hassling us to buy things and get in their rickshaw. Martin however smiled politely at everyone that spoke to us,

he got me through the day without fuss!

Actually we found in Mumbai we got a lot less hassle. Mumbai definately felt more western, more cosmopolitan. Alot of the architecture was designed and built by the British, including Victoria Station and Horniman Circle. In parts we could have been in Oxford or Cambridge, walking past the university for example.

We must have walked for miles and miles exploring the city, heading initially to India Gate, passing the Bombay Stock Exchange, the docks, Institute of Science, taking a detour to the Modern Art Museum and the university. We spent a good hour sat in one of the parks watching children play cricket. At India Gate, there was a very high police presence with

our bags being arbitarily checked to get near the gate. Around the Gate were several elaborate gypsy style carriages to take tourists for rides, you could go on a boat ride for good views of the gate or you could buy a human size balloon on elastic (why?)!

Before getting on the train we treated ourselves to a 'posh dinner' in an ac restaurant near the station, which came to a total of £6 including 2 mains, 2 soft drinks, a bottle of water, roti and a double sundae to share! Bargain! Then we back on the train for another 7 hour journey to reach our final destination of Aurangabad.

Jaipur to Mumbai

27.09.11

This morning was eventful! The price we were quoted for the taxi was again too much so we started looking at trains around Rajasthan, it looked like we couldn't get out of Jaipar for a few days. So we decided we would take Martin's friend John, up on his offer and head to Mumbai then Pune. We found a train online and thought we'd better call John to check

before we booked. 2 minutes later, we could nolonger book the train. So we headed to the train station and again booking had stopped 4 hours before the train was due to leave. We were told that we could go an hour before and try and get a

ticket an hour before.

With much dilemma this is what we did and we got on the train at 2 o'clock. we had Ac2 sleeper which was much more spacious,with only 2 bunks, 6 bunks in a carriage. We saw any unexpected sights as we travelled, from warthogs snuffling around on station platforms, people casually crossing the tracks. It was very noisy on the train, from the rumble of the train on the

the tracks, the horn sounding frquently, people snoring gently and vendors calling out their wares. In our carriage there was a really friendly the couple. They spoke to us about their lives and life in India, telling is about their daughter's 5 day wedding with 3,000 guests! They also helped explain what was going on on the train and ordered us a meal.

Unfortunately when our meal came most of it was inedible! When the couple saw us struggling they were insistent that we share their meal. They explained that they deliberately brought more food when on a journey so they could share it. It was delicious, they had made fresh roti and aloo gobhi, which was so tasty.

Soon it was time to make up our beds, stretch out and go to sleep. We were not due in to Mumbai until 8 am.

Having met this couple and a old man on the train. It made me think about the first impressions I had had of many of the Indians I have met. Typically people have not seen very open, friendly or smiley on first impressions. It's common not to be greeted automatically. People can also come across quite abrupt and stern in their manner. We have not heard one person apologise if they bump in to you or say excuse me. It is also not considered rude to stare which can be

a bit disconcerting! We have also had many people ask to have their pictures taken with us!

The PInk City

26.09.11

This morning we met our rickshaw driver Khan at 10am ready for our day tour of Jaipur. He drove us through the streets of the Pink City. Which interestingly enough, wasn't originally pink when it was first built (the colour of hospitality in Rajasthan)but only painted pink for the visit of Prince Albert in 1876. The streets of the Pink City were just as dirty as the rest

of the city, with rubbish strewn everywhere, and the buildings dirty. To be honest I was disappointed. The first place Kahn took us was the Isarlat, a tall tower on the edge of the Pink City, which gave great views of the city. We were then taken to the Jantar Mantar, which is a medieval astronomical observatory. It was a fascinating place, with

huge stone structures that looked like something out of Salivador Dali painting. We had a quick squint at the City Palace which is still home to the royal family. We then had a stop off at the Hawa Mahal, the Palace of the Winds. It is a beautiful building which is made up of many windows, arranged almost like a beehive, reminding you of insect eyes. We continued

on to Rama Niwas gardens and then it was lunch time.

After lunch we were taken to small printing workshop to see how fabrics were printed and woven traditionally in Rajasthan. The fabrics were stunning, intricately printed, and they were't too pushy about trying to sell us anything! Afterwards it was time to return to our hotel as we wanted to finalise our plans for the rest of the trip. The idea was that we would just make a few phone calls and confirm our tour by taxi of Rajhastan. we had been given costings

for 18 days and it was reasonable and we knew would be much more relaxed and we would see loads more. However when we called to confirm we were told that our driver had cancelled because he thought his English wouldn't be good enough. Anch got in touch with another driver, however he was charging more a km and we had to pay him for a minimum of 250km

a day, which would rocket the price up - so our plans were scuppered. Our hotel thought they could arrange something for us but we had to wait until the next day.