The Bombay Rush

Our sleeper bus left Udaipur at 4pm on Thursday, it broke down, and 17-hours later we had arrived in Bombay.

I cannot begin to even describe how bad this bus journey was, cattle travel better than this. Aside from the two hours of daylight as we were leaving Udaipur and which let us take in the sights, the rest can only be described as 'pure hell'.

Our two-person sleeper compartment was high at the back of the coach, and the vehicle's complete lack of anything resembling suspension led to us feeling every bump in the road - and there are many.

At times you'd think you'd got through the worst of it, before being launched 12-inches into the air to land with a crash on your spine, it was painful and I think can only be compared to a personalised 17-hour earthquake.

Well ok, more like 16-hours. For one hour we were stuck next to a remote flyover as a group of people tried to figure out what was wrong with the bus (aside from the obvious), and child beggars urged us to throw rupees at them from the windows.



We finally got on our way and somehow managed to make it to what we thought was central Bombay, a stone's throw from the port, at about 9am. Actually though we were dropped nowhere near the port. We tried to stop random tuk-tuks but the drivers just laughed and drove off - we were still 40km north of the Gateway of India, and were both carrying everything we owned.

Somehow we managed to get a famous black and yellow taxi. These are ancient looking cars, that come with an assortment of dents, scratches and adornments as varied as the drivers. An hour later we were within sight of the Arabian sea and the famous archway that marks the Gateway. The driver, despite charging us something like four times the going rate, helped us find the ferry offices - even stopping and asking directions for us.

It was 10.44am and by some miracle we made the 10.45am departure. We breathed a sigh of relief as Bombay faded into the distance, although we both regretted not spending a little more time there...next stop Mandwa port, then onto Alibag and the Konkan coast we thought - fools.

After an hour on the ferry we hit terra firma, and another 30-minute bus ride later we were in Alibag. We should have known. The Lonely Planet guidebook, which covers every conceivable corner of India, doesn't even mention Alibag. To all extents and purposes for the backpacker it doesn't (and probably shouldn't) even exist.

We went to one guesthouse we were turned away we tried another - same thing. We tried even more but because of Diwali there were no rooms. Everyone was staring at us, we were exhausted we were still (barely) carrying our luggage.

Our vision of travelling down the coast to Goa was in tatters. It was blatantly obvious that all of the small towns we had planned on visiting would also be packed. We almost cried.

Thankfully though we managed to negotiate a bed for ourselves at the Hotel Ramakant (nice name). It wasn't very clean, I looked outside and there were people washing themselves out of buckets, the towels were kind of crusty, but it was a room.

However, to have just settled down for the night would have been too easy. After using the shower we found we couldn't turn it off and were moved to another room - arrrghhh!

At this point, feeling physically and mentally sapped, our options were limited to two choices:

1. Bite the bullet head back to Bombay and book a 17-hour bus ride to Goa;
2. Bite the bullet head back to Bombay and book a one-hour flight to Goa.

Not surprisingly, we had kind of had enough of buses. And minutes later we were in Alibag's one and only Cyber Cafe booking flights. Of course we had to get back to Bombay first.

Our flight was due to leave Bombay's domestic airport at 2pm, we weren't taking any chances and booked our bus back to the port to retread yesterday's footprints for 8am. If we could make it to the Gateway of India by 11am we would have three hours to head the 40km north to the airport (actually quite close to where we were originally dropped off). It all seemed possible.

After spending something like 1600R on a taxi to get us here yesterday, we fully expected to be ripped off for a taxi back. I was startled when I managed to get one for 400R, and half expected that we would be dumped in a back street miles from anywhere. But our driver (who only seemed to know how to say 'OK' in English) was brilliant and we spent an hour hurtling at high speed in another black and yellow to the airport - we made it!

One flight and one night in a dodgy hovel later, we're finally in Goa - hoe of the head wobble. We're staying at a beachfront guesthouse on Colva Beach. It truly is paradise. The sand is white, the sun is hot, the beer and curry are cheap.

We're planning on staying here for another five days just to relax, unwind and recharge the batteries, before moving onto the awesome ruins at Hampi Village, in Karnataka, and heading down-country to Kerala. All being well one month from now we should be on our way to Singapore...I'll keep you posted.

PS - pix as soon as I can find a net cafe that lets you upload pictures.

Diwali deadlocks, Udaipur and the Bombay rush

Well it's been a while, but in the 7 days since I last posted I think we have been travelling for about three days, and staying in the outback for about two...so here goes I'll try and update you as swiftly as possible.

After a 15-hour overnight bus ride from the deserts of Jaisalmer we arrived in the lake city of Udaipur early last Monday morning. The journey - our 1st on India's sleeper buses was interesting and about half-way into the trip the coach suffered a blow-out to a rear tyre. A team of Indian's quickly assembled and we were on our way again quickly.

When we arrived at 5.30am we were greeted by a horde of tuk-tuk drivers hungry for tourist rupee, after a quick bit of bargaining, we managed to get a lift to our hotel - where we promptly crashed out for four hours.

The sleeper bus is a good idea but someone really ought to change the name. We grabbed a couple of hours but it's not exactly comfortable - more later.

So, first impressions of Udaipur - well it was very touristy. Whether this was because of Diwali or not I'll never know, but the touts and hawkers that had bugged us in Jaisalmer were out in full force here trying to sell us everything from marble statues of elephant-headed god Ganesha (we bought two), to Hashish (we steered well clear).

On our first walk into town we were stopped by a bookshop owner who was also a fashion designer, an artist who was apparently soon due to exhibit in Tate Modern (but after showing us his 'art school' surprisingly tried to sell us a few paintings), and all manner of other people.



















The lake palace was impressive, but unfortunately due to a bad monsoon the lake was virtually empty and covered in green algae - which didn't seem to stop people washing their clothes in it.
The palace is of course one of the central locations for James Bond 'Octopussy', and this is used to draw in tourists. I felt though that the mountains around Udaipur were a lot more impressive and were excellent places to watch the sunset and perfect my amateur snapper skills - or at least try!

As Diwali drew closer the explosions grew louder. At times I can imagine Udaipur sounded like Baghdad circa 2003. The Indians seem to have a much more laid back approach to health and safety than us Brits.

Children throw fireworks and firecrackers in the streets, they throw them at tuk-tuks they threw them in the lake, they launched them at hotels - and boy do they know know to put on a show.

At about 9pm on our second evening (Diwali night) we were sat in the roof-top restaurant of the 'Dream Heaven' guesthouse and it just kicked off. Everywhere you looked fireworks were being launched. And unlike a UK fireworks display that might last half-hour if you're lucky, this went on all night and the fireworks just seemed to get bigger and better. It was truly impressive and we both felt privileged to be in such a beautiful city for what is the Indians' biggest festival.

The next day we both decided to visit the Monsoon Palace. This sits on a huge mountain overlooking the city. On the way there we saw our first elephant, who was in the road (surprise, surprise) and was being decorated for the celebrations. The drive to the the palace almost destroyed the tuk-tuk - I don't think its four-stroke engine and three wheels were designed for hill cimbing, but the views once we arrived were fantastic.

Things got even better when Angela spotted a black-faced monkey (not the scientific name), and I rushed down to get a few pictures of it before it ran off. As I was taking pictures of it, more and more people seemed to join in.

This seemed fine until I leant down to get a shot from knee-height. Suddenly, the passive 'cute' monkey, that moments earlier had been cleaning its balls and seemed oblivious to my camera, bared its BROWN FANGS and leapt at me!

I would be lying if I said I wasn't scared. It wasn't big, probably sitting no more than three-feet high, but it was quick and it had brown fangs - dark brown, like the plague. I ran. Having decided to give the rabies jabs a miss it was one disease I could do without. Luckily I don't think it bit anyone, and it wasn't joined by any of its fellow monkeys - which really could have turned things ugly.

The next day fearing reprisals from the primates we both decided it was time to hot-foot it out of Udaipur. Unfortunately this was to prove harder than expected. Due to Diwali Indians were travelling all over the country visiting friends and family, all the trains were booked and bus and coach prices had tripled.

We cancelled our planned visit to Bundi in southern Rajasthan and decided to make our way to Mumbai (which I'm going to call Bombay from now on as it's a better name), from there the plan was to head by ferry for Maharashtra's Konkan coastline. It sounded so easy. Another 15-hour bus ride, a short hop in a taxi through Bombay to the Gateway of India port and a ferry to the coast. How wrong we were. (continued in next post...)

Jaisalmer, Camels, and 'The Desert King'

Well after five days living in the walls of Jaisalmer's golden fort we're preparing for the next stage of our journey - a 15-hour bus ride to the lake city of Udaipur just in time for Diwali celebrations.

It's been a pretty busy few days. As Angela's mentioned, Jaisalmer is a little more of a tourist trap than we had expected. Every day to leave the fort you have 'run the gauntlet' of touts and hawkers trying to sell you everything from wooden statues of Ganesh to camel and motorbike safaris.

In an effort to fend them off I've now started talking in gibberish and my best Borat voice (you know how it goes), it doesn't stop the stares but they do leave you alone.

So, highlights of Jaisalmer?

Well we both spent Friday trekking around the Great Thar desert on the back of camels - an interesting experience. The camels were impressive they truly are the weirdest creatures to look at, and even weirder to ride.

You don't have stirrups so have to let your legs hang either side of their body - this is quite painful, and despite learning my lesson after some horse riding last year, by the end of the day I felt like I had been on some sort of Medieval torture rack.

But our guide 'Urga' was brilliant and cooked up two fantastic curries, chapatis and dal over a camp fire in the desert. It was probably some of the best food we have both had so far, and eating in the sand dunes as the sun went down was fantastic and a memorable moment.

Overall we were both pleased we had opted for the one-day trek rather than stay overnight. We got all of the benefits (the sunset, an amazing night sky where you could clearly see the Milky Way), and almost none of the problems (a night with the huge black dune beetles - think 'The Mummy', and two days of camel torture).


I say almost none of the problems, as I did have to go 'Ray Mears' after lunch - but the goats were almost no hassle and didn't run off with the toilet roll.

Yesterday, as I hit the big 3,1, we took in the sunrise from the roof of our guesthouse 'The Moti Palace', and decided to escape our relatively sparse surroundings and touts and opt for a little luxury.

We booked a day's swimming in one of the city's five-star hotels and after arriving at around 10am found we had a huge luxury pool to ourselves - at least until the massed ranks of the French and German tourists turned up and proceeded to turn the quiet desert retreat into something out of Allo' Allo' - they were so loud.


The hotel was quite a strange experience - aside from the staff, you don't really even feel like you're in India - it was a sterile sort of place. We're both definitely pleased to be seeing things as backpackers.

Ok, it's not exactly luxury, but it's less then 3 quid/night and we're meeting a lot more people and seeing the 'cow in the road' India, instead of being shipped from sight to sight like some sort of high-class cattle in luxury a/c coaches.

One of the best characters we have met so far is the owner of our guesthouse. After we checked in on Wednesday he introduced himself to us as 'The Desert King' - and even has this name on his motorbike.

After he found out it was my birthday yesterday he promised: 'We make party for you' and proceeded to ply us with an endless supply of Kingfisher and rustle up a delicious homemade curry (which we are still suffering from).

He reminds me of some sort of Indian Del Boy, and despite looking as though he has spent one too many summers wandering the deserts, is in fact only 28. He has broken English and plans to some day open a resort in his village outside Jaisalmer and monopolize the city's supply of milk and peanuts.

In the mornings and afternoons he lounges around in a towel and vest lording over his 'palace' and the two child-labourers that cook and clean for guests and seem to both be called 'the boy'.

On to Udaipur we go...for Diwali, Lake Palaces and Octopussy.

Jodhpur to Jaisalmer

Hello everyone - Angela here doing a guest blog and giving Chris a day off.

We were both pleased to leave Delhi and we found Jodhpur the perfect place to relax, it is a fairly big city so outside the sanctuary of our lovely Haveli it was still mayhem, but if you look there are quiet places amongst the chaos.

The highlights were:

1. Sitting in the rooftop restaurant watching the sun go down over the blue city.
















2. Visiting the magnificent Mehrangarth fort which stands on a natural hill high above the city, we were lucky enough to be staying in the old town near the old entrance into the fort so instead of going in via the main entrance with the rest of the hordes we were able to walk up the quiet meandering pathway and visit the fort gardens.

The fort was amazing and had a great audio tour so we could wander around at our leisure, it was my building highlight so far - superior to the Taj Mahal!!

































The people of Jodhpur are very hospitable we were invited into a family's house for Tiffin one evening, which sounds nice but we had just eaten and they proceeded to force feed us more food. They then insisted we went back for lunch the next day, it was great that we were lucky enough to be invited back and I am pleased to say our stomachs held up.

I have also been shopping with a new found friend Anu and her mum, we went into the busy market place one evening and they helped me choose a Salwar suit. I was after a plain one but the two I ended up buying look a bit like 70's curtains - pictures to follow, i am sure you will all enjoy the laugh!

We have also met a few funny Indian nerds, the first was an Indian Music guru called Guru who ripped us a CD with about 90 hrs of music on it. The second was a guy selling memory cards who kept cracking me up by calling them 4 jigga cards!

Today we waved farewell to the funny people of Jodhpur and boarded a bus (at 5 am) for Jaisalmer. It took 4 1/2 hours (no air-con) and took us through the barren scrubland of the Thar desert. We also saw a poor dog get it's foot ran over by a Jeep! There are millions of dogs running the streets here, just wild. It is strange as Indian's are a nation of animal lovers but they just leave them to their own devices so you see injured ones all over the place.

Our accommodation in Jaisalmer is really cheap - three pound fifty a night, not sure how many cockroaches will be in the bathroom (the number seem to correlate to the amount you pay!).
It is run by a guy called The Desert King, who breeds camels....need I say more.

The fort here literally looks like a giant sandcastle raising out of the desert, we are going to explore it tomorrow and then go on a camel safari into the Thar desert on Friday. There are a lot more tourists here (so you get a lot more hassle) but i suppose we are adding to it so we shouldn't complain!

Hope you have enjoyed reading - it isn't as funny as Chris's but i am a detail girl.

Jaisalmer Fort taken today from inside a lovely restaurant.
















Jaswant Thada Centograph, Jodhpur - with very peaceful gardens!














My Salwar suit - check out the trousers!

Goodbye Delhi, Hello Rajasthan

After five days in Delhi we were both feeling burnt out and in need of a holiday - but undaunted, we booked a domestic flight to Jodhpur and are now living it up in the hot desert wilderness of India's western frontier - 35c - 40c sun beating down, not a cloud in sight!

We are currently staying in a guesthouse in Jodhpur which has amazing views of the famous 'Blue City', and the awesome Mehrengeh's fort which dominates the skyline. On arriving we both spent a couple of hours taking in the views and watching the sunset - we were both finally pleased to be somewhere a little more relaxing than Delhi.

Delhi was good to experience but in all honesty it's not somewhere I'd recommend going unless you're prepared for the strange sights, smells and sounds that make up the place. Also, there are people everywhere, doing everything you can imagine, and some you can't.

For example, when we arrived in the hot pitch black night on Monday - and bearing in mind there are no street lights and it's not compulsary to actually turn on your headlights when driving in the dark - I was greeted by the sight of a one-legged man sitting in the middle of a busy road begging. He seemed quite happy and beamed a smile at me as he shuffled over in the hope of a few rupees - I couldn't quite believe it and told the driver to floor it.

On Thursday we decided to get out of Delhi and head to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. We had both hoped that maybe this would be a little different to the chaos of the capital but the four hour journey there was just as hectic and filled with similar scenes of desolation and insanity - rubbish everywhere, every pool of water filled with sewage, fires burning on the ground, cows and dogs wandering onto the motorway, people trying to rip you off at every turn...not really what we'd been hoping for in the first week of our trip!

The Taj was amazing, but as usual it was hassle trying to do anything. Annoyingly an 'official' guide attached himself to us after we'd got the tickets and it took ages to tell him we didn't really want a guide and 'no' he was not getting a tip.

Anyway, we are slowly getting to see a different side to India - we have just come from lunch with an Indian family we met yesterday, their hospitality was amazing and they kept offering us food!

The streets are still hectic, cows still wander around in a zen-like state eating out of rubbish tips, and dogs still look a little unsure of exactly what's going on, but everyone is friendly and says hello - although you get just as many stares.

Our plan now is to make the most of our fantastic guesthouse for the next few days, relax a little, then head to Udaipur's Lake Palace, Goa and finally Kerala - where Angela assures me it is a lot quieter (I hope so! But if not at least there are beaches!!!).

More pix soon!

Delhi - utter chaos but it seems to work

Have been meaning to post sooner but the PC at the guesthouse in Delhi is from the days of the British Raj and keeps crashing...

We've just finished our 2nd full day in the city after landing quite late on Monday then waiting for an hour in immigration as officials worked there way through 10 planeloads of passengers.

We would have been through sooner but there were only two offiicials checking foreigners in and about 20 for Indians - this got even more annoying (but admittedly did liven the wait up) when a group of Kazakhstanis were allowed to join the 'Indian' line.

Apparently they were in a Kazakh 'band', and one of the people waiting carried what must pass for a camcorder in Central Asia - but looked more like a Soviet-era rocket launcher.

After finally making it through we set off into the night to find our guesthouse - along the way we saw whole families crammed on motorbikes rickshaws transporting all manner of things...an hour or so later and after being driven across roads that would not look out of place in a warzone we finally made it.

Our first full day was spent - somewhat by mistake - in the Chandni Chowk area of the city which is quite possibly the most hectic part. Luckily though we met up with a fellow traveller Jos from Holland and teamed up to see the sights. We got to see the Red Fort, the Jama Masjid mosque and literally billions of other things that my brain is still trying to understand and comprehend. Along the way we passed through several bazaar and slum areas and it really was an assault on the senses.

After saying bye to Jos on the Delhi Metro (the cleanest, coolest place to be), we decided it was time to take our first tuk-tuk ride and brave the madness of Delhi's roads. I think the Delhi Highway code (if it even exists) probably contains one rule: Don't hit anything.

Other than that it's pretty much every scooter, bus, truck, car, rickshaw, and cow for himself - everything bustles onwards without any kind of order.

I am literally going to have to sign off now before this PC dies - again, but will update with more soon.

Dubai, taxis, tipping

It's a hard life travelling the world but someone's got to do it...

After a 3.30am start, a 7-hour flight and some final farewells, we finally made it. The Emirates flight was everything we expected it to be and the food, service and entertainment was top notch. Having flown Ryanair exclusively for the last few years it was a real step up - I mean there was leg room and everything. Not that this would have helped the Indian guy I was sitting next to who was in the middle of a 24-hour, connection-filled marathon from Boston, USA to southern India.



Dubai is impressive. Flying in at night we got to see the full neon splendour of the emirate, I haven't been to Las Vegas but I imagine it looks very similar - with less mosques. Upon leaving the plane the heat really hits you - and it's humid too. We arrived at about 7pm and it must have been pushing 35c - knew I wouldn't need that second fleece! The airport looks like a cross between a sheikh's desert palace and Lakeside - and puts Heathrow to shame.

After arriving quite late on Saturday and feeling a bit like the living dead we stumbled into our room, in fact I was so dazed I mistakenly ended up tipping the doorman 8 quid!

With only one full day here and now pursued by other hotel staff wanting a tip we went into full 'city-break' mode and spent Sunday trying to cram everything into the litle time we had left - so much for the relaxing stop-off!

Unfortunately Dubai is much more widely spread out than we thought and we ended up spending most of the day being driven around by mute cabbies (!!!) in plush air-conditioned taxis.

Our first stop was the sail-shaped Burj Al Arab hotel, nestled on the shores of the crystal, blue waters of the Arabian Gulf, it costs more than 10,000 Dirhams a night to stay - I'm not sure of the exact exchange rate but suffice to say it's ridiculously expensive - in fact it's so exclusive that when the taxi pulled up at the front of the hotel we were told we couldn't even go near it without a booking!

Undeterred we walked along to Jumeirah beach to sunbathe with the rest of the rabble. Unusually for Dubai the beach is quite undeveloped and as a result is free of the rampant commercialism on display everywhere else. The sand is golden and the sea is like a warm bath. We had both covered ourselves in factor 30 but the heat from the sun was relentless and we soon found ourselves in another taxi.

"To the Gold Souk", I said

"...." said the mute cabbie.

He then proceeded to drive us as fast as possible across the desert with little regard for traffic signs or other vehicles. The Dubai tourist board advise that because of the massive amount of immigration into the emirate (80% of the population are from somewhere else), driving can be quite an unpredictable experience. We discovered this first hand when our taxi almost careened into the back of another car.

Still we made it to the Gold Souk. And man, it souked - everything was closed, we were constantly harassed from people trying to sell us pashminas, and all of a sudden there were no taxis!

After making it back some hours later we had a dip in the pool and I finally got to get a few pictures from the hotel roof - the tall tower on the right of the picture is the Burj Tower and when it's finally built it will be the world's tallest skyscraper, i think it's about half-way there now.

Anyway got to dash - another plane to catch and India awaits....