India 2010

Well it's into May and cannot believe that I've been home 10 days already. India ia a pretty amazing country, nothing is ever easy but in the end very rewarding and never boring. I left Udaipur on Apr 26 and flew to Delhi for one last night in India (had sort of forgotten how crazy Delhi could be, especially after the laidback easy going Udaipur). Hint when flying out of Delhi make certain you spend or exchange all your rupees before going through to the departure lounges as you cannot spend them in duty free unless you are an Indian. Good thing I didn't have a lot of rupees left. I flew to London the next day and Heathrow was unbelieveable, it must have taken me at least 2 hours to get through Immigration. Finally made it to my hotel, had time for quick shower and John and Tracey showed up. We hit the bar in my hotel and I had my hamburger finally (6 months with no red meat was probably good for me) and I must say I really enjoyed it. Then Sophie arrived and we had a great time catching up, in fact we did close the bar, the bar man went home but said if we wanted more drinks just call the night manager (good show). It was wonderful to see the three of them again, we had met on the Cuba trip. I am posting a few more pictures, hope you enjoy,

Hi everyone, am still enjoying Updaipur. On Sat I splurged and hired a car/driver and went to Ranakpur for the day.It is about 90  km s from Udaipur  and I did not  feel up to taking the local bus, plus the a/c was a bonus, it seems to be getting hotter every day. Ranakpur is widely known for it's marble Jain temple. Over 1444  marble  pillars carved in exqusit  detail support the temple.  It was constructed between the late 14th and  mid  15th  century.  It is really spectacular! The Jain  religion is very similar  to Hinduism  and accounts for  less than 1 percent of the population, where as  Hinduism is the religion of over 85% of all Indians. It was a nice drive and well worth it. Yesterday  (Sun)  just wandered about and ended up meeting a really nice  English couple, we went for a drink and then had a terrific dinner at  Amir (we had tried to go there for Lara's  birthday  but it was incredibly windy  and we went somewhere else). Sorry Lara  the meal was great  and it lived up to it's rating in the Lonely Planet Guide. It was a very enjoyable last evening in Udaipur, this evening I fly to Delhi and then  tomorrow London. I know I am ready for home, I have been craving a hamburger, I've been eyeing all the cows in the street and I've seen firthand what they do and stepped in it a couple of times as well (I am gong to have to burn my sandals once I make it home).Se you all in a few days.

Jodhpur continued. I took a tour of the fort in the morning before it got too hot. The Fort was founded in 1459 is in burnished red sandstone and stands 400 feet above the city, great views of the blue city below. The blue wash applied to most of the houses orginally denoted high caste Brahmin residences and resulted from the addition of indigo to the lime based white wash. It is thought tp protect the buildings from insect pests and to keep them in the summer. It's pretty impressive. Just a short stop in Jodhpur and then on to Udaipur, our final stop. Kim and Lara spent a couple of days here in Udaipur and left last night on the train to Delhi. Kim flies home on the 22nd via London, hopefully given what is happening with the closed airports throughout Europe and the UK. Lara leaves for Thailand the next day, I miss them already, they were terrific travel companions.I am here in Udaipur until the 26th when I fly to Delhi and home on the 27th via London. I opted to spend the extra time here versus Delhi for many reasons, but mostly because it's small, laidback and very pretty and not one tenth as crazy as Delhi. The hotel we picked is lovely and has a pool, but tomorrow I am changing hotels I found a really nice one on the other side of the lake, with great views of the City Palace. Will continue to update you, Less than a week to go, it's hard to believe it could go by that quickly..Love to all, Winn

We made it to Amritsar and the Golden Temple is incredible, it looks like it is floating on the water.Amritsar itself is not a very appealing city, am glad however we made the effort to go to see the Golden Temple, it was well worth it. We then took the train from Amritsar to Delhi and met back up with Kim in the afternoon and took the train that day to Jaisalmer, a bit of a long travel day, we started off at 5:30 am and did not arrive until the next morning.Spent the morning at the Fort, it is really beautiful but maybe in serious trouble, erected on a base of soft clay and sandstone, the foundations of Rajasthan's citadel are rapidly eroding because of the huge increase in water consumption. At the height of tourist season around 120 liters per person are pumped into the area, 12 times the quantity used only a couple of decades ago. For that reason we opted not to stay in the fort itself. We stayed in a nice little place just outside the fort and it even had a pool!  Temps are still around the 40 degree mark, so the pool was a necessary luxury. We took our camel trek here,and it was terrific. We drove a couple of hours into the desert and met up with our camels at 5:00pm. OMG it was hot, I am certain the water in my bottle was actually boiling. We rode for about 1 and half hours and then setup camp, seriously a little guy from the travel company walked into the desert and we actually had cold beer, nothing has ever tasted quite that good. After the beer we had dinner and then just laid out on our blankets and star glazed.. There was no one else around and it was magical, shooting stars and not a cloud in the sky. It did cool down for a short time and I actually had to use my blanket. Then breakfast and back onto Duke, Cornelius and Humphrey, yes we actually named our camels. Lara was in the lead on Duke, followed by Kim on Cornelius, then Sir farts a lot carrying the two guides and Winn bringing up the rear on Humphrey. Seriously camels do fart a lot, but it was so much fun and is definitely one of the high lights of the trip.We then took the afternoon train to Jodhpur, an easy journey as compared to some.  All are well, more to come..

India the saga continues

Hi everyone, I figured it was time to post an update, we have spent 5 lovely days in Upper Dharamsala or Mcleod Ganj home to the Dalai Lama and many Tibetans. It really is a lovely spot, very laidback, lots of walks, restaurants and most important you can get beer or wine here. We have had a great time, met a brother and sister on the 16 hour bus ride and tonight Lara and I are having dinner with them, they are a really nice pair we had dinner and several beers with them our first night here.We just put Kim on a bus to Delhi and tomorrow we are catching a government bus (no air conditioning and packed to rafters) to Amritsar to visit the Golden Temple. We have to leave at 4:15 am and have to take a rickshaw to Lower Dharamsala and catch the bus there.We are spending the night in Amritsar and then catch a train at 5:30 am (do you see a trend here?) to Delhi where we pick up Kim and take another train to Jaisalmer. It is going to be a hectic couple of days but am looking forward to the camel trek in Jaisalmer, but not the heat again. It is warm here in Macleod Ganj (mid thirties) but since we are quite high in the mountains the evenings are beautiful. It cools down really well. Take care will contine to keep you up on our travels..

Very cool I have 4 followers on my blog, hope am not boring everyone too much. We have met some interesting people in our travels and I have been asked several times whether or not I love or hate India and my answer has always been. it depends on what time it is, it is crazy, exciting, and mind blowing, a few days to relax is just what I need, and in case you are interested at this moment I love it, the only thing missing in Rishikesh at the moment is beer, there is a big Hindu festival (they are hard to escape from India). The festival is in Haridwar (one of the holiest Hindu cities) and Rishikesh and both places are totally dry, I would pay serious money for a cold beer. The actual festival lasts for 2 months, Mar & Apr. Our next stop is Dharamsala and even though it is the home of the Dalai Lama, they have alcohol. The Dalai Lama was here this morning to bless a special Hindu bible that was just finished.
Had a good day yesterday, we went white water rafting, supposedly class 3 or higher but the river must be low as it was fun but not over the top, Attended a north India cooking class this morning and ate our efforts for lunch, pretty darn good. Tomorrow we are planing on getting up early and hiking to a couple of waterfalls before it get too hot. Tuesday we leave for Dharamsala by bus, it is supposed to take 12 hours, should be interesting. All are well, take care..

India. the saga continues.
We are presently in Rishikesh. a small charming and most important a little more laidback town. We are going to spend several days to re-charge our batteries.There are lots of restaurants and places for yogi and the temp while still hot is only in the mid thirties (never thought I would say that) and tomorrow we are going white water rafting on the Ganges. Should be fun!
Anyways more about the train from hell. We left Agra at 7:00 pm and since the trip to Ranthambore was not overly long. we elected to go by sleeper class- big mistake! Kim had warned us in advance that sleeper class versus AC sleeper 3 was rough but no one could have predicted that trip. Our compartment had 6 bunks. 6 people right. no! more like 16 to 20 people. the train was so packed you could not move. it was stop and go all the way.and of course hot and incredibly dirty, Kim saw a huge rat. We suffered for 4 and half hours till the extra 500 or so people in car got off, they were attending some sort of festival, most did not even have tickets and the conducter could not even get in the cars to kick anyone off. There were kids six deep on the top bunks and people sitting/standing everywhere. Thank God no one had to use the facilities because you could not move.Then it only took another hour to get into our own compartment and actually lie down by now it is 12:30 and we had been up since 5:00 am, we finally get our hotel about 3:00 am and were up again in 2 and half hours for our safari, and then when we were almost finished our safari we saw the tiger and it helped. It was very cool, he had been in the water when he was spotted and our truck was the first one to get there, so we got a really good look at him and some great pictures.

Sat Mar 27, up early again this time to see the sun rise at the Taj.We were amongst the first people on the grounds and it was extra special to see it without thousands of people around. Although the crowds show up soon enough.W e got the requisite pictures of us on the white marble bench that Diana sat on. Admission is a whopping 750 rupees per person, to give you an idea of how expensive that is, our hotel for the 3 of us was 450 rupees for the night.Tourists pay the 750 rupees but Indians themselves only pay 50 rupees.Security is very tight, they pat down everyone and confiscate the most bizarre things,( my gum and Lara's traveling gnome) . We left Agra at 7:00 pm to go to Sawai Madhopur and do our safari in Ranthambore National Park. More on the train ride from hell later, but the amazing part is we did manage to see a tiger, he sauntered directly in front of our jeep, about 20 feet away, it made the whole trip worthwhile..

India continued:
Tuesday Mar 23. arrived in Varanasi in the am, OMG it's hot, already it is 40 degrees.  We went to a Hindu ceremony in the evening right on the bank of the Ganges, lots of insence burning and singing, Our hotel is very central, right on the river and about halfway between 2 burning ghats. It is a maze of alleys and small streets and shops.Up at 5:30 to take a boat and see the sunrise, very lovely and at that time of morning the temp was bearable.It was amazing the number of people around, we went by both ghats and watched some of the burning, it goes on 24 hrs a day here, they bring the body down the river, wash it and then a priest performs a ceremony and then the body is placed on the pyre and lit. Some one from the family stays until the body is completely burned and the ashes scattered in the Ganges.No women are allowed, there is smoke everywhere. On the boat we did pass a body floating by, usually if the body is not burned it is because it is a holy man or someone who was bitten by a snake, I guess there are several why a body is not burned..It was a little disconcerting to say the least to see a body floating by and people washing and drinking the same water. After our boat ride we went o a yoga class and I was so hot/dehydrated I was a little sick, the temp is now 42 degrees.
After Varanasi we went to Agra, Truly one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, the Taj Mahal is really magnificient. Since the Taj Mahal is closed on Fridays we took a local bus (37 rupees one way) to visit the ghost city of Fatehpur Sikri formerly imperial capital of the Mughal emperor Akbar. The city is 40 kms south west of Agra and was built between 1569 and 1585.Shortly after the new capital was built, it was basically abandoned and Akbar moved his capital back to Agra.Spent the afternoon there and returned to Agra to watch the sun set over the Taj Mahal..

India Monday mar 21

Well to continue where I left off yesterday. Met Kim at Humayuns tomb. Delhi's first Mughal mausoleum. The gounds were lovely and huge so there did  not seem to have a lot of people. It was hot around the 37 degree mark, within the grounds is a square mausoleum for Humayun's barber. An important man because he was trusted with holding a razor to the emperors throat, thought that was kind of an interesting tidbit. They closed down the site early, made everyone leave as they were expecting some prince from Belgium. We then went to Lodi gardens and just wandered around and tried to find any shade.
Today Lara arrives and this evening we take the train to Varanasi, am really looking forward to that. It will be good in some ways to leave Delhi, it is so huge, busy and a little overwhelming to say the least. There are lots of things to see and I've probably just scratched the surface, hopefully I will some more time at the end of my trip.

Arrival in India

Arrived Wed after a long trip, was very tired so did not do very much at all.After agood night's sleep I was off to explore Delhi, quite a place, crazy, noisey, and the smog was really bad on Thursday. I went to India Gate  which is a 42 metres high arch that commenorates the 90,000 Indian troops who died in WW1 and bears the names of 3000 Indian and British troops who died on the NW frontier in the Afghan war, from India gate it is a straight line to the Presidential Palace on the Rajpath, very impressive.. That evening I took a taxi to Kim's flat for dinner and drinks with all 7 of her room mates. They were really sweet, they provided birhday cake and candles and sang Happy Birthday to me in their native languages all at the same time.. They are from Poland, Hungary, Japan, and Brazil. It was vey special amd I was very touched.. Must go Kim and I are off to do some more sightseeing, will continue later..
Winn

India 2010

Well, I am off once more. This time I am going to India, I leave in 6 days and am very excited. It is a bit of a trek to get there, I fly first to London, then a 9 hour stopover, then an even longer flight to Delhi, the good  news is that I arrive at a good time 10:40 am Mar 17th.You might wonder at the picture that I posted, but this is a bit of a work in progress and as I don't have any pictures of India yet, I thought I would post my of favourites from the Galapagos Islands. Blue Footed Boobies are very cool & these 2 are ready to start their mating dance..