Holly & Alexander, India, January, 2015
Itinerary

21 January, 2015

Hi all!

We have arrived safely in Jaipur after a pretty hairy car ride from Agra, which our driver must have done at record speed, using the hard shoulder as a means to undertake slower moving camels and trucks at every opportunity. We are, however, quite relived to be out of the chaos of Delhi. The Taj Mahal, which we nipped to on 'the way' from Delhi to Jaipur was glorious and thanks to the fore mentioned speedy driving we got there so early that we were one of the first bunch in. We have been up since 5.30am having only left my friend Deeps house at 1pm as he wouldn't let us go!!! He burnt us a chicken (don't ask) and plied Al with Indian wine and peanuts until we could make our goodbyes.

I love our hotel here in Jaipur..its quaint Jus, and kind of quirky. I treated Al to an Ayervedic massage which was lovely, And we just had a lovely roof top meal at the sister hotel of ours with twinkly lights and even a couple of fireworks! Al has let me do all the food choosing and so far I've done good! Tonight was the best meal yet. We scoffed ourselves whilst snuggled under blankets and Al had his first Kingfisher beer.

Tomorrow we get up and pootle off to the Amber fort and pink city, and then we are (weather permitting) going to do a balloon ride over Jaipur..I can't keep this boy out of the sky!!

Tomorrow night we have the luxury of a second class, three bunk sleeper train to look forward to for 12 hrs to take us deep into the Rajasthani desert and to Jaisalmer for camel safaris and adventures.

Over and out (and ciao) for now

H&A

X

26 January, 2015

Namaste!

So where did I leave you?? Oh yes!

Jaipur.

Well, the day after our massages we hired a tuk tuk driver called Mo for the day for the grand expense of £5 and he acted as our tour guide, restaurant critic and shopping instructor which really was a good bargain itself I feel. We learnt a lot about Mo during our 8 hours together including having a rummage (at his insistence) through a book of business cards of his 'English friends'. We learnt that Mo has been working hard as a tuk tuk driver for over 16 years and despite the fact that the rickshaw itself had no wing mirrors and kept braking down every few kilometres, he was immensely proud that he could save up 800$ a year to pay for both his children to go to 'private' school. He was especially proud of his little girl, (who most people apparently told him not to bother to educate), as she was top in her class and working hard for a scholarship so that her dad could relax a bit. We ended up giving him £10 for the day.

Did I mention it rained that day?! It poured. I got out my very fetching rain coat and pootled around looking like a plump and lopsided ghost. It cheered up in the afternoon, but not in time for our balloon ride unfortunately, but to brighten the mood we did find some nice emporiums and a clothing sale where we bought a couple of warm mens coats for the chilly evenings. I made Al promise that we will give them away to someone before we leave.

We ate another delicious meal at Peacock and then headed to the train station for our over night train.

Al had sense of humour failure when we got to the station and saw the hundreds of (rather dirty and smelly) people waiting to get on our train. When we did get on, a family with two small children had pretty much taken over the whole birth and Al and I had to cramp up with our suitcases and lie in a ball to fit. Come 6am, the baby was screaming and we weren't getting off until 12!

Eventually we arrived in Jaisalmer and our gorgeous little hotel within the fort.

After a thorough decontamination we set off for lunch and a mozy around the sights. We had a chilled evening where I didn't do my best ordering and an early night.

Camel safari day!!! We were collected shortly after breakfast and were driven about an hour outside Jaisalmer to a village called Khuri, where we were given a jerky jeep ride around town before a thali lunch and our camels arrived with our guides - two boys aged 12 & 8. My camel was called Disco and was a frisky fellow with a mind of his own! Even so, we enjoyed a wonderful afternoon wondering through the desert, the boys took us to their village where we saw their school and met a few of their friends (one of whom was trying to get my to give her all my belongings..she settled for my only pen), let us rest at the beginning of the sand dunes where we both promptly fell into a snooze, and then took us deep into the dunes where we stopped and watched the sunset. We had dinner around a campfire with local musicians and dancers entertaining us, and finally we ventured off in a jeep, back to the sand dunes, where a chap called Mohinda built us a bed out of sheets and cushions, set us a fire, and then shot off into the night, leaving us to sleep alone beneath the stars.

I slept surprising well, Al not so much. We woke up just after sunrise, when we were collected, and after just managing to escape having our breakfast stolen by a goat, we were driven back to Jaisalmer.

And that was yesterday! We showered and headed out for more temples and some unsuccessful shopping (in my eyes) and spent the afternoon relaxing on the rooftop of our hotel. Dinner was chilled and then an early night as we were up at 5.30am this morning to get the train to Jodhpur.

We only had an afternoon in Jodhpur and we really made the most of it. We did the tour of the fort in record time and then did a special zip line tour off the fort walls itself! It was such a fun thing to do and the views were incredible. We go pro-ed it and did our best at doing one handed selfies which was amusing!! I dragged Al out to the antique emporiums and we just finished a delicious meal on a haveli rooftop, with the fort all lit up on its hill.

Up early again tomorrow for another 5/6 hour train to Pushkar, so will leave it there for now.

Lots of love to all and ciao for now

H&A
X

4 February, 2015

Hello all

It is now February and as such we have migrated to balmier climes, and it is 34 deg C as I write this from the upper deck of our houseboat in Kerala, whilst we sip coconut water out of freshly picked coconuts..but I digress.

I left you the night before we boarded another train to Pushkar and it is there that I shall pick up from.

We arrived in Pushkar at about lunchtime (me somehow having contracted the flu) and did our now ritualistic decontamination from the train. 6 hours of lying flat on a bunk in a filthy train with what we now refer to as BFGS (initials of four pretty disgusting and noisy bodily functions that fellow travellers seem happy to put us through), doing their thing non stop, can make even a cold, dribbly shower feel like heaven.

We had lunch at Baba's rooftop restaurant, where we quickly learnt that neither meat nor alcohol would be consumed for the next three days (I am, as it turns out, unequivocally a carnivore). We took the rest of the afternoon to wonder around the bazaar and to settle into our quirky (Jus) hotel.

Thanking the universe that we didn't have to heave ourselves into another train for a few days, we slept in the next day and after more vegetables, we hit the ghats (including Ghandi ghat where the forementioned was scattered post cremation) and local temples before climbing up 1k to the top of a nearby mill (our new word for a small mountain or large hill!) to the temple at the top. The views were incredible and Marge, it was no easier doing it the second time around!!! We were thoroughly pooped after that, so relaxed the afternoon and evening away.

Our final day in Pushkar had some excitement in store! When I lived in India I spent a lot of time on the back of various friends Royal Enfield Bullet motorbikes and we had been playing 'spot the bullet' ever since we arrived in Delhi. Today was the day that we would rent one of our own! Now Marge and Pops, you may want to skip reading this bit..Al decided that a 350cc wouldn't do so we went to whole hog and got a 500cc which backfired and blasted as soon as you managed to kick start the damn thing. Anyway..it was a beautiful machine..old and needing a bit of tlc, but it was ours for the day. Al drove us out of Pushkar until we found a little slip road with barely any traffic so that I could have a go 😃. I did so well that soon I had Al on the back and I was negotiating my way onto the main road, up the windy, steep mountain road towards Ajmer. Fellow motorists could barely contain themselves at the sight of a GIRL driving a BOY on a bike. We got hooted at (more than usual), given thumbs up and even cheered. People stared so much that for their own safety we decided to swap back over!

Al rode us back into Pushkar and along a road that stopped abruptly and around dirt tracks for a while, where I fell in love with a little puppy with a broken paw and cried when Al wouldn't let me take him to the local animal hospital.

That night we returned to Babas and repacked our bags for yet another train journey.

The train to Udaipur was at a much more social time than previously and this time we even had seats! 5 hours later and not feeling like we had the onset of bedsores, we arrived in Udaipur.

It is my first time in Udaipur and I love it. Al says it's his favourite place in India so far, although I'm not sure that means much as he has said that at nearly every place we've been to.

Udaipur is very different to the very dry Rajasthani cities we've been to so far, it is lush and the efforts of the royal family to better the city for the sake of tourism is notable in comparison to some of its northerly cousins. Our hotel is a lovely heritage haveli and looks out onto the lake. Al is obsessed with the Taj lake palace hotel and is determined that we stay there when we next visit. We indulge in a late lunch of chicken thali (CHICKEN!!! Hurray!!) and then take a boat tour around the lake just before sunset..it is beautiful.

That night we dined at the best restaurant in Udaipur and as Al was rubbing his hands together at the thought of their 'extensive wine list' the waiter came over and announced that it was a national dry day.

Al was not amused.

Not even vaguely amused.

The food was delicious (fish, chicken and what I was desperately trying to pretend wasn't goat) and despite the waiters snooty attitude to a women doing the ordering and als insistence that it was the waiters fault that he couldn't have a drink, we passed a romantic and relaxing evening looking out at Octopussys lair.

The next morning we breakfasted at a place that served healthy food that made us feel odd and then went to take a tour of the palace..our favourite so far. After admiring the opulent crystal collection, we ate more food and then perused through a few shops and bazaars. Dinner was on the rooftop of the hotel that we were meant to stay at but at the last minute realised that they had never confirmed to us, which was our favourite meal so far! Absolutely delicious and Al got his long awaited glass of wine.

The next day we had the morning to relax and wonder and then we flew from Udaipur to Mumbai and then Mumbai to Kochi, running to catch our connection and praying that our luggage made it through the transfer (it did). We arrived at our hotel in Fort Cochin at about 10.30pm.

Cochin is beautifully warm and sunny. We ate breakfast at the hotel and then went exploring. We walked up and down the Chinese fishing nets, drank our first coconut, and walked along to Ghandi beach. After the tastiest fish thali lunch, we sat a while looking at the water and then hired a tuk tuk driver to take us to Mattancherry and Jew town. We had drinks and then dinner in what the guide book described as 'movie star surroundings' and ate posh and slightly pretentious, but by no means not delicious food and walked ourselves home.

And that was yesterday, although I'm not sure exactly when you will get this as there is no wifi on the houseboat.

We have been drifting through the backwaters of Alleppey since this morning and have so far eaten some local fish that we bought from a fish seller and have some scrummy prawns to have for dinner. It is incredibly peaceful here and Al is even having a snooze by my feet.

Actually..that seems like a very good idea right now, so I shall leave it there and join Al for a sunlit nap on the floor.

Lots of love and ciao for now

H&A

X

12 February, 2015

Hello all

Can you believe that this is our last day in India? I'm devastated ??. It has been one hell of a trip and we will leave with nothing but good memories and a craving for steak.

So I guess I better fill you in on what has happened since my last email.

We snoozed on the deck of our houseboat, before docking up for the night, when we went for a walk along the bank and watched the sun set over the paddy fields. Dinner was served on the boat before we were rocked to sleep in our cabin.

Breakfast was a Keralan concoction on board, before we were dropped off and driven 2.5 hours to the airport, from which we flew to Bengaluru, formerly Bangalore and formally my home.

We were only in Bangalore for the afternoon and I showed Al where I lived for the second part of my time in India, on Church Street, which is now just an empty space as the house has been demolished. I spent a fortune on fruit at my old supermarket, Nigiris, before we went to a bar called 13th floor, (an old haunt of mine), where we watched the sunset before dinner next door.

We were both dreading the over night train to Hampi and neither of us were wrong to do so. We were in sleeper class with no ac, the bunks I swear were smaller and it was filthy. I barely slept and it seemed that every person in the entire coach were BFGs (burpers, farters, grunters, snorers). So I rammed my noise cancelling headsets in as far as I could and tossed and turned (as much as you can without falling off your two foot wide bunk) until I was in a thoroughly foul mood.

Poor Al.

What made the problem even worse, was when we realised, to our dismay, that we had miss read our ticket and instead of arriving at 10:00, it actually said 07:10:00. It was now 08:20:00

Oh #%*\ !

The BFGs in our carriage thought this was vastly amusing and each one delightfully told us how we had missed Hospit by three stops. Very helpful indeed. The worst of the BFGs that I had actually contemplated throwing my filthy, Indian train toilet infested shoe at numerous times in the night, even told us that he had woken up at Hospet an hour and a bit before. GREAT NEWS!! He did, however, slightly redeem himself by telling us what to do when we got to the next station, which involved finding a tuk tuk to take us to the bus stop, to take us back to Hospit, so the we could take another tuk tuk to Hampi, get a boat, cross the river and walk to our mud hut.

We politely ignored his advice, got to the station, confused everybody with our ticket to the incorrect station, got shouted at in Hindi, shouted back in English, bought two general tickets and ended up sardined in between very curious people who unashamedly stared at us for over an hour, whilst a man in a very short skirt clapped at us and demanded money.

We eventually arrived in Hospit, got a tuk tuk, took the boat and staggered to our guest house. The tranquility and beauty of this place has to be seen to be believed. We had our own mud hut with a hammock that was over looking the paddy fields and to the rivers and boulders beyond. It was so quiet and there was not a single rickshaw in sight.

Hampi has changed a lot since I was last there, the government is doing a slightly botched, but definitely needed job of restoring and protecting the ruins, but it is beyond me why they demolished my favourite restaurant, mango tree, which used to be under a mango tree by the water falls, which you could only get to through a banana plantation and where you could while away an hour or two eating scrummy food off banana leaves and swinging on the swing. The restaurant had been relocated to the town which didn't exist before and rather sadly had pictures of its old glorious location at the front of the menu. We had lunch there anyway, and after me spilling half the chana masala on my white trousers, we went for a walk and an explore around the nearest ruins and temples.

We bought me a new pair of trousers (£2.50, because we had left our big cases in Bangalore and I hadn't brought a spare pair), before getting the boat back across to our hut. We relaxed for a bit, me reading my book on the hammock, whilst Al fussed about, before we went for a walk down to the river to watch the sunset from a big boulder. We had dinner at our hotel in the company of a seriously large spider, and then took ourselves to bed in our little hut.

We awoke to the sound of nature in the morning and after packing up our things and having breakfast (where, thanks to my mild freak out at the size of the spider still lurking in the lampshade, it was unceremoniously relocated to a bush not nearly far enough away), we took the boat back across to Hampi bazaar and checked into our other guest house which we just used to keep our bags in for the day.

We were then greeted by our guide for the day, Shankar, and set off in our rickshaw to learn about the ruins. Now, I had been to Hampi twice before, and was slightly worried that I might get bored of seeing the ruins for a third time, but I know how much Al likes ruins so I was ready to suck it up. However, I was pleasantly surprised when our guide started talking, and learned so much about the history of this place that it was my best visit to Hampi yet. The company also made it so ??.

We saw the making of a Tamil movie up in one of the ruined temple complexes, and because my leg had been giving me gip, I treated Al and I to the most wonderful foot and leg massage after we'd finished our tour.

We freshened up, ate dinner on the roof of the guesthouse as the sunset over the temples, before getting a ride back to Hospit and boarding our last Indian train of the trip (WERHOO!).

We managed to get off at the right stop this time and made our way to our hotel in Bangalore, where we checked in early, did a final decontamination, before setting off for an authentic South Indian breakfast of idily and dosa which cost exactly £1.52 for us both. I then took Al shopping (much to his delight) on Commercial Street, where I bought enough bindis to keep me going for the next 10 years. After a browse in Safina plaza, where one of the stall owners actually remembered me and gave me a family and friends loyalty card (Pops it was the same guy you disgraced yourself with!), we had lunch at one of my favourite restaurants called Samarkund. It was exactly the same and the menu hasn't changed and I totally over ordered. They have these really cool copper cups and so we vowed to each other that we would buy some before we left.

To walk off our grossly oversized lunch, we decided to walk slowly back to our hotel via various places for coffee and browsing. That night we had sushi as we were still stuffed from lunch, and met up with 4 of my old friends for drinks.

 Al woke up with a hang over the next day and after a long lie in we headed to brunch at the Leela Palace hotel. I used to go there each Sunday with a big group of friends, the food is delicious and champagne flows.

I could barely keep myself together on the way to see Nelson..my cute little one eyed dog that I couldn't bring home. He is ten now and has a very similar temperament to Kumo. I cried a lot when I saw him..I didn't want to let him go.

We promised to go back and visit before we left, but that night some friends had us over for drinks, and after we stopped off at a bar to meet another of my friends, Vachan, before flopping into bed totally beat.

The following day I took Al 35k south to Bommasandra, which is the location of the factory that I worked in and was my home for the first 6 months I was in India. We stopped at Bharat first, which was just as opposing as it was 10 years ago and the security guards were pretty aggressive. I felt really on edge being there, but I'm pleased I got to show it to Al. Miraculously I remembered the way to the grotty apartment block that I lived in and the look on Al's face when he saw it was priceless. Apartment Q7 and its surroundings were just as grim as they were 10 years ago and Al was very, very quiet on the way back to the city.

Now, I've always said that if I was on death row I would want fish musulum from my favourite restaurant in Bangalore to be on my menu and today i took Al to have just that. The restaurant is set in an old luxury train from the times of the Raj, complete with suitcases and hats on the luggage racks. The fish was just as delicious, my memory hadn't played tricks on me at all.

We then went on the hunt for those copper cups and after a horrendous experience in the heat and chaos of Chickpet, we gave up and bought them on MG road at twice the price.

I took Al to the bar I had done the interior design for on our last night and the manager Matthew remembered me! We then went to the Windsor Manor hotel and we had the RAAN for dinner, yes the RAAN (silly private joke), in its beautiful surroundings.

The following day we had the best part of the day to pootle around Bangalore before our flight and my lovely friend Vachan came to pick us up and took us to lunch with my old housemate Vishnu. We then kept our promise to Barbara and went back and saw her and Nelson before our flight out.

Then we went to Goa.

Glorious Goa and the terrific Taj! For the past two days we have relaxed on the beach, been for runs (Al), and massages (Holly), and have lived in luxury after all those flipping trains!

Tonight we watched the sunset over the sea, before dining on prawns and spicy promfret.

And that's that.

We have a wake up call booked for 4am (eek), our flight to Mumbai is at 7:00 and after a 4 hour wait we leave for London at 13:45.

It has been the most incredible 4 weeks and I'll leave you with a joint composed poem to sum up our travels.

Lots of love and ciao for now

H&A

X

Incredible India

25 days in India we stayed,
With 24 hours of fun, oh we played!
23 pashminas that we've now to pack,
Buying them gave Al his first heart attack.

22 cash withdrawals to make up for this spend,
21 power cuts, will they never end?
20 times Holly was called 'Sir',
They knew not to try to overcharge her.

19 packets of bindis were bought,
18 temples we saw, plus forts.
17 bites on Holly's legs alone,
And she doesn't like to eat goat on the bone.

16 different beds for the night,
15 security checks for each flight!
14 kilos excess we paid,
We can't count the journeys in tuk tuks we made.

13 copper cups eventually were found,
12 different locations all across this land.
11 cars took us on journeys you see,
Agra, Bommassndra and to Alleppey.

10 coconuts we drank from a straw,
9 years since Holly was last on this tour.
8 bottles of insect repellant were brought,
The good that they did has a value of naught.

7 times we flew by plane,
6 journeys were done by train.
5 massages in total we had,
Hand sanitiser is not just a fad!

4 blessings given to us as a team,
3 boats on lakes, backwaters and streams.
2 dodgy coats to keep us from cold,
2 journals, 2 camels that were quite bold.

1 little dog that made Hollys heart ache,
1 eye he has and a little tail that shakes.
1 royal Enfield bullet we rode,
1 incredible India this tale has told.

It's the end of our adventure and we're at the Taj,

We are living in luxury, living it large!

From the beach to the mountains we travel tomo',

From 30 degrees to the coldness of snow.

Thank you for the update Holly, the pictures are beautiful.

Also it looks like the beach you visited had surfing waves.

Love the poem it made me smile

Holly and Al, we have never received such an animated, fun and amusing story and the poem, from Holly. You have both had a memorable visit to India, one that NO travel company could ever ever replicate! Thanks so much for sharing it with us along the way. Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.

Ps: get the ski boots out!

One word to describe all of your updates....BRILLIANT!!!

Through this last one I felt I had been there with you.

Slide show requested when you come to stay!! You need to add Switzerland to your list of jet set locations...

Can't believe a month has passed but your emails have made me feel like I'm travelling with you. Hols maybe you should revive the travel show (I'll carry your bags). Enjoy skiing and see you both soon xx

It was great reliving some Indian experiences through your vivid descriptions. What a wonderful trip you’ve both had!
Good luck going through jetlag twice; we’re having a hard time doing so from Australia. At least you go the same direction
both times. Loved your poem too!

Like everyone, I have so enjoyed your account of what must have been a fabulous trip, BFGs notwithstanding, and the pictures have been a very special treat, not posed, just capturing life as you encountered it. It is a lovely record of your trip which you can return to for years to come.

We look forward to having you both back so we can hear more of your stories.

Good bants