Delhi and Heathrow: The End

29 April 2010:

Bottom class train tickets for the 3 hour ride from Agra to Delhi as nothing else was left, we caught the early morning train though so thankfullly it wasn’t too busy. While Matt snoozed, a crazy old man with no teeth stole his book, he definitely couldn’t read English so Captain Corelli’s Chapatti probably didn’t entertain him too much.

Arrived into the chaotic Paharganj area where we were staying, took a while to find our guest house as the rickshaw drivers all tell lies to try and get you to different places so they can earn commission. Checked in and went out to the more modern Connaught Place area for some lunch, the place was a building site though as they are trying to improve it for the Commonwealth games in October. We predict it will not be even close to ready. Had a pizza for a change from constant curries.

Later walked into Paharganj bazaar for some souvenir shopping but the place is so dusty and mucky we didn’t hang about for too long.

30 April 2010:

Rickshaw to Old Delhi to see a couple of sights. We went to the Red Fort which was expensive to get in for foreigners though so we just looked at the outside, more Indian boys asked to take a photo with us, we suspected that they were zooming in so the photo only had Carly in. Cheeky. Then walked down to see Jama Masjid, the biggest mosque in India, they get 25,000 people in there. Unfortunately it was prayer o’clock so the 25,000 muslims weren’t too happy about us coming in for a look around. Still a very impressive building from the outside. Masses of poverty and hassle around that area so we evacuated to Costa coffee in Connaught Place for some air con.

Lovely streetside curry for tea back in Paharganj, a good meal for our last night in India, we are so glad we came here even though it has been quite hard work at times.

1 May 2010:

The Last Day!

Lift back to Heathrow with Richard Branson at lunchtime, we landed at about 6pm and were very happy and excited to see Carly’s Ma and Pa at the airport.

So it’s all over, 21 countries, 258 days and one amazing honeymoon. We’ve had the time of our lives.

Agra: The Taj Mahal

27 April 2010:

Our bus arrived in Jaipur at 5am and we pushed through the crowd of rickshaw drivers shouting for our custom (two of the older drivers resorted to a fistfight to decide who was next in line) to find a connecting bus to Agra. Left Jaipur about an hour later and spent a highly unpleasant seven more hours on the road until we arrived at our destination.

Settled into a guest house and caught up on some sleep, then later went out for a little explore, we were staying right next to the east gate of the Taj Mahal in an area originally built for the thousands of workers needed to build the Taj but it was quite dirty and smelly with touts everywhere.

28 April 2010:

Early rise to beat the crowds; we were in the Taj by 6am while it was still cool. Amazing place, all the hype is well deserved, so massive but every part of it is covered in intricate detail. No wonder it took so long to build it.

Walked around and enjoyed the view and the peace and quiet whilst reminiscing about our trip as this is our last big attraction before we go home. As we were leaving there was a loud parade on outside, the people had chucked colourful paint all over each other and we stood and watched as they passed.

Relaxing rest of the day reading our books then went for a meal on a rooftop restaurant with a nice sunset view of the Taj in the distance and the sky full of colourful kites flown by people from their rooftops.

Jaisalmer: Camels and Dunes

24 April 2010:

Overslept and only just caught our 6.30 bus to Jaisalmer. A man on the bus kept telling us how much hassle we should expect from hotel owners when we arrived, it turned out he had a guest house so could save us the trouble, surprise surprise, his hassle was the worst as we couldn’t escape, he sat next to us on the bus for nearly two hours. We did not stay in his place.

Jaisalmer, ‘the golden city’ is very hot (41 degrees) as it is in the middle of the Great Thar desert. There are lots of yellow stone houses, a big fort on top of the hill in the middle of the town and more interesting local street markets to browse around. There are many wild cows, pigs and dogs living in this town, they are everywhere, they eat rubbish off the floor and as a result have very strangely shaped bellies. The ladies on the market stalls have to shoo them away from their fruit and vegetables.

Also  a bit more touristy than the last couple of places we have been, lots of people are constantly trying to sell camel tours, we booked one for tomorrow.

25 April 2010:

Picked up at 8 in a jeep for our camel safari, made a few stop offs before we reached the camels, including a grand cemetery, a Jain temple, an empty city where there were some people shooting a film and little a village of 60 people where the kids demanded we take a photo of them then demanded we pay them for it.

Met our camels, Rocket (Matt) and Bubaloo (Carly) then set off with our guide Lucky (guides are always called Lucky) and his 8 year old shoeless apprentice. The first hour was riding on the camels through scrub desert, quite dirty sand with lots of shrubbery around. Stopped off for lunch under the shade of a tree and Lucky rustled up an excellent vegetable curry and chapattis on a fire he made, he called it desert food as some sand might be included.  

Back on the camels after a big siesta during the hottest part of the day, after about an hour and a half we reached the sand dunes. Very beautiful clear soft sand and gorgeous blue sky, it was great and there was nobody there except us.

Watched the sun set over the dunes while Lucky made some dinner (even though we were still mega full from lunch) and our jeep came back for us as it got dark. Brilliant day, we loved the dunes, well worth braving the scorching desert temperatures.

26 April 2010:

Had a look around Jaisalmer fort, it is like a town in itself with lots of houses and markets inside but they are not allowed to build in there any more as it is in danger of collapsing. Hung around and waited for our bus at 4.

Jodhpur: The Blue City

22 April 2010:

Early bus north to Jodhpur, only 7 hours so not too bad. Ordered another Thali when we arrived at the guest house, the owner was very proud of the food (his daughter-in-law was the cook) and he sat next to us while we ate to tell us what to do (eg eat poppadoms last, never first). This was nice at first but a bit awkward later when he insisted we finish off some curd juice that we really didn’t want.   

Had a look over the city from the rooftop, they call it the blue city, not all the buildings are blue but about half are, and the fort at the top of the hill is a great view. Sat and listened to the muslim prayer noise which added to the evening atmosphere.

23 April 2010:

Escaped the manic streets and constant hassle by hiring a rickshaw for a couple of hours to see the sights around the city. First was the palace of Maharaja Umaid Bhawan, a very grand place with a museum to look round, then on to Jaswant Thada, a memorial to another Maharaja and a very pretty place with great views of the city and the fort.

Last stop was the fort, we got up there to find that the price for foreigners was ten times as much as for Indians and we didn’t have enough Rupees on us to go in. Took some pictures from the outside instead and walked back to town through the blue houses and tiny winding streets.

Had a drink in the clocktower marketplace then looked around the spice shops and watched the ladies in their saris bargaining on the fabric stalls. Also saw a young boy do a poo on the road and run off.

Udaipur: Lake Palace Town

20 April 2010:

After 20 sleepless hours on the bus from Mumbai (India wins the world’s worst transport prize hands down), we arrived in Udaipur in the Rajasthan region about 8am. Met our friend Kit who was in town and had some breakfast and a catchup. Much needed snooze then went for a look around a couple of the sights, a Hindu temple in the middle of town where some people were being lectured to by a wise old man, then the City Palace Museum where there was a ridiculous charge to use your camera so we had to take our photos on the sly so we didn’t have to pay it.

Udaipur is a small traditional town with lots of rickshaws and livestock fighting for space on the windy little streets, a nice change after the noise and mayhem of Mumbai. There are lots of rooftop restaurants offering views over the town and lake, every place claims to be the highest.   

We walked down to the town’s main attraction, the Lake Palace which is famous for being used in the James Bond film Octopussy. Because the lake is nowhere near full (it is the middle of dry season), it was not quite the fairytale view we had read about, but still a beautiful place. You can stay there but the thousand pound a night price tag was just outside our budget. Maybe next time.

21 April 2010:

Quite a slow day with some more exploration of the town, we saw some ghats where people were struggling to do their washing beacuse of the low level of the lake. Had some trouble trying to decide what our next move would be as some people told us it would be too hot to go to our intended destination in the desert. In the end we decided to ignore them and go anyway.

Night time found our favourite viewpoint so far, a nice restaurant with a great view of the lake and palace, it looks much more fairytale lit up at night. Had a nice Thali which is a selection of Rajasthani foods with rice and cahapattis. Kit left us to search for tigers as he feared the rumoured desert heat.

Mumbai Madness

15 April 2010:

Managed about an hour’s sleep in Singapore airport so we were tired when we landed in Mumbai. Two hour taxi ride in the chaotic traffic from the airport to the Colaba district, we coud probably have walked it faster. First taste of Mumbai poverty was girls in saris knocking on the taxi window asking for rupees, very uncomfortable when the taxi is not moving, we didn’t know where to look. Arrived in the midday heat (unbelievably hot) to find that the hotel we were aiming for had been demolished – our fault for using an out-of-date guidebook. Trying to find another place was a stressful task due to the heat and lack of sleep on top of many locals trying to drag us into their establishments. Finally we checked in somewhere and had a much needed couple of hours’ snooze. 

Later on walked into Colaba and had a browse around the busy market stalls, a crazy packed Aladdin’s cave full of random nicknacks, then went for a drink in Leopold’s bar which we subsequently found out was the first place hit by the 2008 terrorist attacks, explains why we were searched upon entry by a man with a shotgun.

A couple of beers later went to see the Gateway of India, a big monument built to honour King George and Queen Mary when they came to visit.

Some Indian people asked if we would have a photo taken with them, we found this strange but they loved it and the man said afterwards that we were welcome to stay with them when we visit their home town of Agra in a couple of weeks. 

Later walked back into town where two guys asked us if we would help them with their university study on tourism in India, we said we were looking for somewhere to eat and they ended up taking us to a local restaurant and buying us dinner! Since we had only been there a day they ended up telling us more than we told them as well, bad deal all round for them. Our first experience of eating in the traditional style which is with your right hand only and no cutlery; the left hand is reserved for toilet duties (which we are not intending to try), and we also tried Indian tea which is very sweet and milky and comes in a little glass.

16 April 2010:

Walked out of Colaba into the Fort area (where the British fort used to be) and watched some locals playing cricket on a massive park called Oval Maidan. They are cricket crazy here, loads of the billboards have superstar cricketers on them and all the kids practice in the road with little planks of wood for bats.

Wandered around and looked at the grand old buildings (armed police stopped us taking photos of some of them), museums and street vendors selling sugar cane juice along Mahatma Gandhi road. Took in the general mad atmosphere of the place, so much constant noise and so many interesting looking people. Looked for a Bollywood film to watch but none of the current ones took our fancy, we thought Bollywood was all singing and dancing but the current ones all seem to be horrors.

17 April 2010:

Caught the local train from Churchgate station to Mahalaxmi ghat, the train was interesting, it doesn’t have any doors and people just jump on and off while it is moving. Carly was a big attraction with the locals who weren’t shy about staring at her for the whole journey. The ghat is where all of Mumbai’s washing gets done, there are hundreds of troughs in the ground with people cleaning their clothes (and themselves) and millions of washing lines. We were impressed with the whiteness of their whites considering the methods used.

Next stop on the train was Chor Bazaar (thieves’ market) which turned out to be a very local place, not craft stalls as we expected but carts of steel and bricks being traded. Fascinating to walk through, really busy and filthy and no tourists around at all, good to see real Mumbai life happening in front of us. We didn’t make any purchases though.

At the end of the bazaar is Chowpatty beach, we got there just as the sun was going down. There were loads of locals on the beach (but none in the sea – it is toxic) and a carnival atmosphere with fairground rides and food stalls to wander around. Tried Bhelpuri which is a puffed rice and chutney snack particular to the area, very tasty and messy.

18 April 2010:

Ferry to Elephanta Island about an hour off the coast. Walked up lots steps surrounded by souvenir stalls and monkeys running around trying to steal food from the tourists. Very busy place and most of the visitors were Indians who had come for the day with games to play and outdoor cooking equipment. Explored the five caves which are cut out of the island’s cliffs, very impressive with lots of sculptures including Ganesha the eight-armed god and Shiva the three-headed god. Those crazy Hindus. Super hot outside in the sun so we stayed in the shade of the caves as much as possible. Lunch in a little cafe (chapattis and dhal) and back on the boat to the mainland in the early afternoon.

Back to our room for a rest and a break from the sunshine then out later for another walk round the markets and our last Mumbai curry.

19 April 2010:

Bus at 11am, 16 hours to get us to Udaipur by tomorrow morning.

Singapore for a Day

14 April 2010:

Looked around the colonial and business districts which were right near our hostel. The city is much prettier than we thought it would be for some reason with lots of skyscrapers and shops, restaurants and bars along the riverside. Walked along the river to the Singapore Flyer which is the biggest big wheel in the world but the 15 pound a head price tag but us off, it’s just a wheel after all.

Nice lunch on the marina in a place called the Manchester Utd Cafe (cheapest lunch deal available, no other reason), then over to Raffles hotel, very posh at the front and we weren’t going to go in in our shorts but we peeked in the bar and nobody was dressed up so we went in for a Singapore Sling. They have monkey nuts on the table and encourage people to throw the empty shells on the floor, this led to some fun littering but we weren’t sure what the point of it is. Carly would not be able to work here due to her OCD cleaning tendencies.

Back to the hostel for an hour’s rest then out for some tea (Thai green curry in a streetside cafe – can’t get enough of that stuff) and a look at the nighttime skyline before heading over to the airport for a night in the departure lounge before our flight to Mumbai in the morning.

Kuala Lumpur: Fast Cars and Tall Towers

2 April 2010:

Long travel day as the Thai system seems to be to have as many bus changes as possible so you can get off and buy tat from the driver’s mate’s shop. Finally got to the Malaysian border and changed buses again for the rest of the trip down to Kuala Lumpur.

3 April 2010:

Arrived in Kuala Lumpur at 5.30am after not much sleep due to the multiple bus changes. Sat in a McDonalds until the sun came up then went looking for a hostel in the Chinatown area, availability was poor due to the bank holiday weekend and the F1 being in town so it took a while. Showers then no time to stop as we had to get to Sepang circuit for the F1 qualifying, the track is by the airport about an hour outside the city.

Reached the circuit and went straight for the merchandise, Jenson and Lewis caps yes please! Watched the final practice session before qualifying, massive noise from the cars and we had a great view across about half of the track from our hillside ‘seats’. Matt especially excited to be there.

Did our best to follow the qualifying session as our nearest big screen was quite hard to see, a good session with some excitement due to the rain which was welcomed by the fans who had been sat in the burning sunshine all afternoon. Only shame was poor performance by Jenson and Lewis who we had clearly cursed with our hat purchases.

4 April 2010:

Back to the circuit by 12 as we wanted to catch the drivers’ autograph session but it was mega busy so we decided not to try and fight our way to the front. Also they rotated the drivers so we might have ended up with Nico Hulkenberg’s signature rather than Michael Schumacher’s.

Headed back to our hillside spot and watched a very impressive display by the Malaysian air force, even noisier than the F1 cars. Then the main event, we really enjoyed the race and had a good view of Lewis making his way through the field. Watched Vettel on the podium on the big screen (no foolish running on the track allowed, shame) then back to Chinatown for some food and bed.

5 April 2010:

Local noodle breakfast then started sorting our visa out for India, this turned out to be more of a job than we had expected and we will have to wait here longer than we expected until it gets sorted which is a bit of a pain.

Went out to see the KL communications building which is a huge tower with an observation floor looking out over the city. A big thunderstorm started on our way there though so we decided not to pay the high entrance fee to go up to the top.

Headed back to Chinatown and had a look around the markets, it is very busy with a lot of food stalls and fake handbags/trainers/sunglasses on offer. Also went to the nearby central market which is a bit more crafty, there were some very nice things there if only we had some space left in our bags!

Curry for tea in the Little India area (there are loads of different nationalities in this town) then went to see the famous Petronas twin towers which were the highest buildings in the world between 1996 and 2003. Fantastic towers and they looked great all lit up at night time. We decided that it is the most impressive building we have ever seen.

6 April 2010:

Up early and back to the Petronas towers to try and get up onto the 41st floor skybridge, they only let about 1,500 people a day up there and tickets are first come, first served. Unfortunately we weren’t first come enough and after an hour in the queue they said that was it for today. We will try again another time.

Went outside to marvel at the view of the towers in the daytime then into the big shopping centre next door for breakfast. Had a look around the Golden Triangle area where the towers are, this is the city’s business district and it is very modern with lots of posh shops, restaurants and skyscrapers.

Later on walked to Merdeka Square where Malaysia’s independence from Britain was declared in 1957, it is a big place surrounded by nice buildings and parks. We were approached by some people making a TV programme about tourism in Malaysia, they asked to interview Matt, not sure his insights will make the BBC news though. Wandered on into the Lake Gardens which are very pretty, lots of fountains and some brides doing a photoshoot.

Tried to call the Indian visa people to check on the progress of our application but they kept hanging up on us so went for some really good street food (chicken and rice cooked in a clay pot in a fire on the street) and a few beers.

7 April 2010:

Headed back over to the shopping centre near the Petronas towers as there is a cinema there, we weren’t sure what any of the films were but had a guess, Carly judged the film’s pedigree by the involvement of Matt Damon, apparently famous actor = good film, her system worked, we enjoyed it then met Alex later for a drink as he is leaving us tomorrow after travelling together since Bangkok. 

8 April 2010:

Spent a lot of the day chasing the visa stuff again which is very frustrating as they aren’t interested in helping us at all, we decided to play safe and put our flight to Mumbai back a few days.

9 April 2010:

Visited the museum of national history which had Malaysian stuff from millions of years ago right up until present day, some of it was interesting but a 250 million year old Malaysian bit of rock is a bit hard to get excited about. Maybe we just aren’t cultured enough for the museum game.

Lovely noodle soup for lunch in Chinatown then hid in the hostel watching a DVD as there was a big thunderstorm, the weather here is strange, sunny every morning then a big stormy downpour every afternoon. 

Later braved the rain and went back to the cinema to see Alice in Wonderland, there was a fashion show on in the shopping centre beforehand so we watched the skinny model legs for a bit while we waited for the film.

10 April 2010:

Had a walk back to the lake gardens for a relaxing day with our books. Matt bought a paper and read about Malaysian sports and business deals. It started to get a bit sweaty so we hired a pedalo and went for a cruise round the lake, there were some fountains to cool us down and we had a nice time floating around. They gave us life jackets which we took off as we didn’t think the pedal boat was such a high risk activity but the keen security man spotted us and blew his whistle at us until we put them back on again.

Went back for a little afternoon snooze then went back to Little India for some curry, we tried to be adventurous and went to a place where we didn’t understand anything on the menu but it backfired when our random selections turned out to be Chinese food instead of Indian, we were disappointed as we were looking forward to some new curry experiences. Matt ate his food angrily in about one minute. At least we are going to India this week so should have plenty more chances to do a better job.

11 April 2010:

Up early for another crack at going up the Petronas towers, we arrived at 7 this time and queued until just before 9 before they gave us some tickets. Watched a video about how fantastic a company Petronas is then caught the lift up to floor 41 (out of 88) to the skybridge between the two towers, we were given red passes and allowed 15 minutes to look out over the city until the next group (the blue passes) came up. All very regimented. The view was excellent though and we were glad that we had made the effort to get up there at the second attempt.

Afterwards treated ourselves to a nice breakfast at a cafe and read our books for a while in the pretty square overlooked by the towers, then went back to the hostel and back to bed. Had a slow rest of the day lazing around and hiding from the obligatory afternoon thunderstorm.

12 April 2010:

Went to the India visa centre – we have finally been approved! Left them our passports to pick up tomorrow (apparently it takes 24 hours to put a visa stamp in them). 

We had heard about a local swimming pool so went to search for it, it was very hot and sweaty and we nearly gave up after several conflicting sets of directions from the locals but we eventually found it, an olympic size pool up a hill with a view of the Kuala Lumpur skyline, only drawback was Matt had to hire some trunks as his boardies were deemed ‘indecent’. The hired lycra cycling shorts seemed a lot more indecent to us but we were too hot to argue. Stayed for a couple of hours and had a nice splash around until it looked like the afternoon rain was coming.

Later went back to the cinema for the third and final time, this time we went prepared for the super strength air conditioning and put our jumpers and football socks on as soon as we arrived.

13 April 2010:

Checked out of the hostel and went to get our passports back from the visa place before our 5 hour bus to Singapore.

Koh Pha-Ngan: Buckets But No Spades

28 March – 1 April 2010:

Spent 29 hours travelling from Siem Reap to Koh Pha-Ngan, one of the islands in Thailand’s gulf coast. Worth it though, it is a beautiful place with amazing beaches, clear sea and green jungle. We stayed in a beach bungalow right on the coast so didn’t have to go far each day and spent most of our time lazing in a hammock or playing in the sea which was lovely and warm. Our friend Robbie was in the region too so we met up with him for a few days which was very nice.

Tuesday 31st was the night of the full moon party which they have here every 4 weeks, it is a massive party on Had Rin beach with hundreds of people and lots of cocktail buckets. Other entertainment included a big slide onto the beach and a giant flaming skipping rope swung by two men, most participants seemed to be getting burned though so we gave that one a miss. We dressed up as thai boxers and were well received by the locals (thankfully none of them tested our actual boxing skills), an excellent night.

Great place for the final beach destination of our trip, only a month to go now!

Siem Reap: Temples of Angkor

25 March 2010:

6 hour bus to Siem Reap which is a nice little town with a lot of tourists, everything here revolves around trips to Angkor Wat temple. Went up a hill to watch the sun set over the ancient city of Angkor, we will come back tomorrow for a proper look around.

26 March 2010:

Up at 4.30 to get to Angkor for sunrise. The sunrise wasn’t too great as it was cloudy and our hopes of beating the crowds came to nothing as everybody else had the same idea. 

First we went to the main attraction, Angkor Wat, which is a really impressive massive temple with 5 great big towers and lots of detail on all the stone walls including details of war between monkey armies which may or may not have actually occurred.

Wandered around for a couple of hours then went to see Bayon temple where there are sculptures of the king’s face in the walls so that the people knew he was keeping an eye on them. This may not have worked in practice.

Last stop was Ta Phrom, a giant rock temple covered in huge trees, it looks like the big roots have been melted onto the walls. A lady asked us to fill in a survey to judge our satisfaction with the temple, the options were “excellent”, “superb”and “not to be missed”. Hopefully they will get the results they are after. Took too many tree photos then went home and back to bed as we were knackered.

Woke up six hours later and went out for some drinks, found a bar where beer was free for two hours if you had a ticket to the temples so we tried to make our admission fee back in drinks.

27 March 2010:

Lazy day around the guest house where they screened Godfather parts 1 and 2, Matt was happy, Carly not quite so enthusiastic.