Mar 31 2009

Keoladeo National Park: Twittering About Twitching

Watching birds isn't really my thing but the Keoladeo National Park is reputed to be one of the best bird sanctuaries in the World: it seemed worth a day's exploration. It's a very good place to escape the masses of people in the big cities (Agra, Delhi) and to be able to wander around, or cycle, is just wonderful.

Today we spent eight hours, with a guide, spotting birds and looking for a nice big Indian Rock Python to take a photo of.  We found one quite soon after feeding turtles and Macaque monkeys are the Hindu temple in the park.

If you listen to what people say about the place you HAVE to get there very early to see any activity at all. We arrived at 10am and thought we'd only last a couple of hours but the heat wasn't too bad as there was a lovely breeze cooling us down. We saw bird after bird after bird including Ibis(es?), Storks, Owls, Eagles and many, many more. Our guide was very good at spotting and brought along a pair of binoculars and a spotting scope on a tripod for us to use.

Now yesterday at the Taj Mahal I managed to hold myself back and only took 100 photos, but today, I just couldn't help myself and shot a few hundred - they're probably all rubbish but I MUST have got at least one good one. Thanks to the guys in my team at work I took virtually all the photos using my new monopod that they bought me this last Christmas; it was brilliant and I couldn't have done without it.

Unfortunately the Rainbow Cyber Cafe here in sleepy old Bharatpur has done a good job of hiding ths USB slots on the PC so I can't upload any of the images without risking thumbling in the dark and switching the PC off! But keep any eye on the Winchcombe Gallery at www.winchcombe.org/gallery.aspx for some India photos: I'll upload when I can.

We're staying at the Hotel Sunbird, which is really nice albeit quite simple. Food is pretty good at 90 rupees (£1.30) for a nice curry; naans come in at a hefty Rs30 (£0.45).

Tomorrow we're off to Jaipur (3.5 hours by car) to see the Amber Fort and hopefully we'll get to ride an elephant.

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Mar 30 2009

Emilia's Recap Of The Last 48 Hours - Delhi and Agra

Saturday 28th March

A driver picked us up from the Airport and took us to our hotel, the Apra Inn, in Karol Bagh, Delhi. We had a rest and ventured out on the streets to go to Pind Balluchi, a restaurant themed like a village, with a stormy sky like ceiling and it even had a tree in the middle of it. I ordered Tandoori Chicken starter and a Murgh (Chicken) Makhani, which I loved. The waiters, who were very attentive, served all the lovely food to us and a boy (about 3 years old) from the table near us kept coming and saying 'hello' and shaking our hands. It was funny.

Sunday 29th March

At 9am, our driver for the next 10 days (Kamal from Namaste India Tours) picked us up from the hotel; we then went on the trip to Agra which took exactly five hours and was very hot in the car, even though it had air-con. The roads are very busy and absolutely mad: cows wander the streets, there's bicycles and motorbikes everywhere, rickshaws and cars drive the wrong way up a busy road if they want to and the lorries are colossal - carrying heaps and heaps of sand.

At 3pm we went to the Agra Fort. In the Agra Fort, lots of people wanted to take photographs of Amy and me because we are white: Amy and I felt like we were princesses. Next we explored the fort, there were bats and geckos everywhere but that was okay; they didn't annoy us.

We ate dinner a Pizza Hut although a lot of the pizzas we're Indian pizza's, like Chicken Tikka Makhani: it was lovely.

Monday 30th March

Beep, beep, beep went the five thirty alarm, as we went to see the Taj Mahal at 6am. From far away the Taj looks like a speck in the distance however when you get close to it, it is actually really, really tall. I loved the Taj Mahal, especially the way the marble changed colour in the sunlight.

So far, I've had a terrific time in India and it's day three.

 

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Mar 30 2009

Is It Really Only Day Two?

 I can't believe we've only been here for two full days; we've seen so much and my feet hurt!

I'll let the kids tell you about some of the places we've been today but I'll focus on our last destination; Fatehpur Sikri.

I was worried about going here as it has recently gained a very bad reputation for touts constantly hassling you, never letting up and worst of all they follow you around the complex. Well, perhaps I got lucky or was it my strategy that worked? I decided that I'd hire a guide almost immediately, as long as he could convince me that he knew his stuff and more importantly, I could understand what he was saying. I'm sure the 400 rupees I spent were ridiculously over the top but my strategy worked as he fended off many of the unwanted hawkers and touts. This made my Fatehpur Sikri experience absolutely brilliant and I felt I knew the 400 year old city well by the time we returned to the car after a tuk-tuk ride.

So, up to now I said 'no' to all the possible guides, well actually I said 'no', 'no thank you', 'no', 'no', 'I said no, 'I don't want a guide', 'look. NO'...you get the idea. But I think from know on I will take a guide where a simple walk around with my little learned knowledge won't be enough.
 

 

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Mar 29 2009

Agra - A Mughal Paradise

Today, after a single night in Delhi, recovering after the flight, we started our trip properly and headed off to Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal.

Agra is often regarded as a place you visit only to see the Taj Mahal and get the hell out. But it's steeped in history (and dirt) and played a major part in the Mughal empire. There's wonderful moments to see here; The Agra Fort; Itmad-Ud-Daulah (affectionately known as the Baby Taj); Akbar's Tomb at Sikandra and more more.

We're travelling in a Tata Sumo, a seven seater 4x4, provided by Namaste India Tours who are also sorting out the hotels for tonight and the next 8 saving us the hassle of having to find one when arriving in unfamiliar surroundings.

After four hours in our car dodging autorickshaws, very large trucks, camels and cows we arrived at our hotel (for the next 18 hours). Then straight out to visit the Agra Fort - which for me is possibly the best fort I've ever visited: if the fort wasn't good enough the view down the river Yamuna of the Taj Mahal is simply stunning.

Tomorrow will be an early start so we can catch the Taj Mahal during sunrise which is 06:11am (eek!) so I guess we'll need to get up at 5am to get there, get tickets and get through security in time to watch the world's most beautiful monument bask in the early rays of sunshine.

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Mar 26 2009

Counting Down The Hours

I'm really excited. Tomorrow Daddy will pick me and Emilia up early from school so we can get ready to go to the airport. I've only been on a plane once before but I was only two years old so I can't remember what it is like. So this is kind of my first flight.

I'm curious about how hot it will be, how big tigers are, how spicy the food is and how much water I'll need to get through a meal without screaming "arrrgghh my tongue is burning".

I'm worried about how busy it will be in case I got lost so I plan to stick close to Mummy or Daddy. Daddy said it was really busy when he went there before.

I'm quite looking forward to seeing all the forts and special places and I'm hoping that I will be able to ride on an Elephant's back up to the Amber Fort in Jaipur.

One night we won't have a hotel as we'll be sleeping on a train. It was my idea to go on an overnight train so I asked Daddy if we could. I'm really looking forward to it.

 

by Amy

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Mar 26 2009

27 Hours Of Waiting

In twenty-seven hours I'll be getting on plane, fastening my seatbelt and hopefully sleeping for 8.5 hours. When I wake up my school will be 4000 miles behind me, woohoo! (Only joking Mr Stredwick.)

Hopefully, our driver will be waiting patiently for us at Delhi airport. He will be our driver for the next 10 days until we reach Udaipur. After Udaipur we will be travelling by train, which is a little worrying at the moment, but I'm sure it will be fine.

The main things I'm looking forward to is riding on an Elephant's back and hopefully seeing some Tigers and taking some photos of them.

Mummy tells me that she loved having banana pancakes for breakfast when she went there last and this sounds great to me. I plan to have a different curry every day but I hope they're not too hot! I can get through a Madras curry okay but I've never had a hotter curry like Vindaloo.

 

Emilia

xx

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Mar 21 2009

On The Home Strait

With less than a week to go things are getting pretty exciting in this house - as if they weren't already: the planning for this trip has been going on for ages.

I've just finished the Where In The World page on the blog with options to view a static or animated version of the route and also(by default) you can see where we are. Each city/place we're stopping at has a map marker which you can click on get more information including links to Wikipedia, Flickr, the weather and (if I ever get to upload any pictures) my gallery. 

Today is the only day available for getting things together and loosely packing up the suitcases/rucsacks. The obvious plan was to travel light but things like this never seem to happen and it's mainly my fault; what with the two cameras, three lenses, monopod, camcorder, chargers, DSs, flash readers. The medical kit also outweighs both kids by 2 to 1. Luckily though our concern about the kids getting ill has meant that Dioralyte and Imodium WILL survive the credit crunch.

Tonight, without phoning a friend or asking the audience I'll be watching Slumdog Millionaire for the third time. Oh no, of course, I can't do that, it's not out on DVD yet.Wink

 

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