Apr 19 2009

From Calm Alwar To Crazy Delhi

Today we left Alwar and headed by train to Delhi.

This time we travelled in two-tier air con class, which was a cross between the two other classes we'd tried so far. I'd be happy to use this for an overnight trip, as opposed to three tier AC (3AC) but I think I'd go 3AC for day trips in the future.

The train was an hour late, which was expected at Alwar as it's already done 1000km before it reaches there. So all in all, over four trains, only one was late and only by an hour. Not bad.

Arrival at (Old) Delhi station was surprising as it's Sunday today, a day of rest for most Indians, yet the station was rammed and I literally had to barge my way throw the passengers to get anywhere. It's not something I like doing but once I got in the swing of it I turned out to be rather good at it. Things I never knew.

Out of the station and we're accosted by 4 autorickshaw owners - why didn't I notice the pre-paid autorickshaw counter?. I guess a local could get the fare for Rs50 or maybe Rs100 but I've already decided that I just want to get to my hotel so I'll settle for Rs200 - they're hardly rich those rickshaw drivers so I don't mind over paying a little. He starts off a Rs350 (only a fiver) and I utter the phrase "do I look like I've just arrived in India". The dust and dirt on my three-quarter-lengths tells him I've been here a while and he drops the price to Rs300. "You are just joking right?". Rs250. I pick up the cases already loaded into the van and leave. "One last chance" I say adn he drops to Rs200. That'll do, I know I've been fleeced, but I just don't care, get me out of here.

We arrive at the oasis that is the Ginger Hotel, a no thrills hotel where rooms cost Rs1000 per night. It's so clean, laminate floors and marble everywhere, LCD TVs and air-con. The kids check out Star Movies and the settle down to watch their first film of the trip - Runaway Bride. Dad buys a 24hr internet access card (Rs338) and starts blogging.

Tonight we're hopefully going to find Karim's restaurant, an institution in Delhi service great shami/sheesh kebabs and the like. But it's apparently a nightmare to find in the old heavily populated streets of Old Delhi. Let's hope we don't see a McDonalds on the way and bottle it.

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Apr 18 2009

Outdrinking The Locals

At the poolside of the Alwar Bagh I was blogging away on the owner's laptop and a set of 6 guys jumped in for a swim. When Jane and the girls left to go back to the room for a shower one of the guys went a got a bottle of whisky and some glasses from the restaurant, as they others got changed. Seems that they'd jumped in the pool in their undies and were a tad embarassed about getting out when Jane was around. How funny is that?

I got up to leave and they asked me to join them for a drink, which of course I refused. But they asked again and I caved in quickly, after all, we're talking free whisky here!

None of us had had anything to eat so it didn't take long to start feeling the alcohol, especially for me, as you probably know, I don't really drink. Oi, stop laughing, it's true.

We had a really good laugh over the next hour, chatting about Indian customs against English ones and the guys did really practising their English. It was funny for me when one of the most vocal pre-ordered his meal, Chicken Makhanwala (Butter Chicken): I suggested that it's a meal for girls and that real men would order a Chicken Jafragi (read Jalfrezi), but he wouldn't have any of it, saying that he couldn't handle the spice. My Jafragi that night tasted great.

So I'm glad to say that I was the one that drank the bottle dry that night. It doesn't happen often so I'm proud of myself.

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Apr 18 2009

Alwar Bagh near Sariska

We are staying at the Alwar Bagh between Alwar and Sariska (another national park).

For the majority of the time it's just been us four and one other room booked out so it's like having the whole resort to ourselves. The chef certainly knows his stuff so I guess this weight loss of mine won't be staying off for long.

When we arrived we were asked what we like to drink and an hour later we saw a car come back from the market and unload the bottles of Kingfisher and Old Monk rum. What a great service, you wouldn't get that in England, you'd just go without.

The kids have asked for ice cream but the waiter explains that there isn't a way to get it back from Alwar (15 km away) without it melting and even if they did the power supply around these parts wouldn't keep it solid for long. Of course, they're kids, they don't understand.

The owner of this hotel is very friendly and confirms my chat with the waiter who told me he is "very good boss sir". Sir, he called me Sir, brilliant, wonder if I can get the lads at work to continue that? (Lads: don't answer this, I think I know what your answer will be and I'd like to keep this blog clean of rude words.)

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Apr 16 2009

Sad To Leave Ranthambhore

After our fourth night we're all quite sad to be leaving Ranthambhore but an adventure awaits: we're catching two trains to be able to get to Alwar and there's only just over an hour between arriving at Jaipur and leaving there on our second train to Alwar. If our first train is late arriving by 45 minutes, we're gonna miss our second one and face a three hour taxi ride for £30, which I'd rather not have to do.

We arrive at Sawai Madhopur station thinking about quitting the trains and going back to the hotel for another couple of nights. This wouldn't be a problem with the hotel as they're not very busy at this time of year and we'd only lose 25 quid on the train fares. But we press on and wait to catch the train.

Our spirits are lifted by six or so local kids all waiting to catch the train, they're so smiley at seeing us - yes Dawes, even me! - and they lift our spirits. I take a photo and they're amazed to see themselves on the screen; turns out to be one of favourite photos.

The train arrives and departs on time, it's clean and we've got the six seats (actually two long comfortable benches) to ourselves for the two hour trip to Jaipur. We play cards, read and I listen to some music on my phone (Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack of course).

The train arrives at Jaipur on time. Phew!

A quick platform change happens with me wishing we'd packed less and we wait for the second train which again arrives and departs on time.

During the trip we decide which hotel to stay at, it's between the Alwar Bagh (as recommended by Indiamiker Puchoo) or Hotel Aravalli (as recommended by...absolutely no-one, but it's cheap!). A fellow traveller looks at my internet printouts about the hotels and tells that the Bagh looks nice but he doesn't know it and that the Hotel Aravalli is.."not bad". (He doesn't mean this in the English usage of "not bad" (as in quite good) but just that it isn't bad, but it definitely isn't good! We agree to have a look at the Hotel Aravalli and see what it's like that is until the train slows down and we see it from the window: "We'll stay at the Alwar Bagh I think" I say.

A crowd gathers as we get out of the station. Autorickshaw drivers hassle us for the business, it's 15km to the hotel. The first one asks for just 200 rupees and I can't be bothered to haggle, it's less than 3 pounds, for 10 miles, and he's got the return journey to do. The other drivers discuss in Hindi that we've been ripped off big time. Three quid: I don't care

What a good choice that turns out to be. It's beautiful (do I have any other adjectives for hotels?) and has a couple of acres, with two pools and five separate buildings for the rooms and restaurant etc. We splurge and take a suite which at Rs4000 is quite dear, but it really is lovely...look it up in Google.

As I write this the sun has just gone down (7:16) and it's dark, I'm outside using the owner's laptop (with a wireless broadband connection faster than my one at home - Hayward: leave it!) with the Aravalli hills silhouetted against the dusk sky. "Beautiful" is the correct adjective I think - yet again.  

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Apr 15 2009

Safari So-goody

(Sorry for the lack of updates but Ranthambhore isn't famed for its Cyber Cafe's or broadband connections.)

Over the last three days we've done five safaris in Ranthambhore in jeeps. I've done one more than the rest of them just to give me one more chance to see the elusive tigers but this safari was done in a clanking great diesel truck which literally drove away any wildlife.

So what was the grand total number of tiger spots we made? One.

It's seems we've been quite unlucky but it's nice to leave this place realising that it's a real national park that contains wild life, not some open air zoo.

Tigers aside, Ranthambhore is a great place for wildlife: the birds (eagles, kites, vultures, treepies, parakeets, kingfishers), crocodiles, mongooses (or is that mongeese?), chittal deer and so on we're plentiful and a lot less elusive than those tigers. I've taken a few photos and hopefully there'll be a few good ones in there.

The Raj Palace hotel turned out to be very nice indeed and it's hard to imagine that you could find staff more friendly and eager to please.

(BTW, I'm sorry if this sounds like one of those everythings-fantastic-Christmas-round-robin-letters (I don't mean you Helen J) but everything is literally brilliant.)

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Apr 10 2009

Udaipur Hotel - Jagat Niwas Palace Hotel - Lovely

We're staying in the first hotel booked by ourselves, since Namaste India Tours dropped us here a couple of days ago. 

Jagat Niwas Palace Hotel

 

The hotel is lovely, right on the bank of Lake Pichola (which doesn't have much water in it at the moment, not till after the monsoon) and has bay windows which overhang the lake.  

relaxing in the Jagat Niwas Palace Hotel

 We've got a room that is at the back of the hotel but has a view, through the windows of the restaurant, of the lake. It's really nice; our best hotel yet. 

Jagat Niwas Palace Hotel

 

When you're here you just can't help staring at the Lake Palace hotel...no Jane it's the other way.

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Apr 06 2009

Jodhpur's Bolly(NOT)good Restaurant

Well we found Bollygood and went to eat there last night, all expectant of a good time, maybe LCD's would be playing Bollywood music videos, or maybe just some music, maybe waiters and waitresses (do they exist in India?) dressed in a Bollywood-stylee.

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

It wasn't air-conned, although it had fans, but they didn't really work very well. It had large pictures of a few Bollywood stars in between the eating tables but other than that it was very plain indeed.

We ordered our meal with Jane and the girls going for spag bol and chicken maryland so they could avoid the spice. Me on the other hand, still not feeling great, launched into a Chicken Dopiaza. Mine arrived and I tucked in before it went cold; very tasty, bit spicy but not too bad; I'd eaten it all before theirs arrived. Theirs arrived, they tucked in and I watched their faces turn from pink to red in a few uneasy mouthfuls. Amy's spag bol turned out to have the heat of a Madras, if not a Vindaloo, back home but she's really a Korma girl so she did well to even managed eating a third of it. The same thing happened with Jane and Emilia. I couldn't help but laugh at the irony of it.

So for us Bollygood turned out to be Bollybad. That's just for us mind, everyone's different.

To cap it all I couldn't find a tuk-tuk for 5 minutes outside and although our hotel is only 10 minutes walk away I didn't fancy it, so dark, so late. A tuk-tuk was finally flagged down, he spoke a little English but couldn't understand 'Ratan Vilas please'. A couple of passers-by tried to help to no avail. I thought I knew where the hotel was so I directed him. Thankfully we arrived to sounds of 'Ah Ratan Vilas. Yes I know Ratan Vilas'. Really.I paid him 50 rupees anyway as I was just glad to get back to the hotel; it was probably 5 times the actual rate.

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Apr 05 2009

Our Best Hotel Yet

After a very hot journey yesterday we arrived in Jodhpur our final hotel with Namaste India Tours. (The car is air conditioned by the way but it just can't cope with the heat).

Our hotel, Ratan Vilas is an old heritage building and we've got a suite room here, it's about the size of the downstairs of my house!

It's a really beautiful hotel and the courtyard where we had dinner last night is lovely; food was good too and only cost £10 for three of us as Jane wasn't eating. 

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Apr 04 2009

Pushkar to Jodhpur

Awake at 5am, not my choice let's just blame Hotel Saket's restaurant, I waited an hour before I ventured out of the room onto Green Park Resort's open airy corridors and did 30 minutes of peafowl spotting, viewing 5 of them on the roof of a nearby hotel.

I spent one hour of removing Bharatpur's cyber cafe trojan horses - thanks a lot :-( - some blog updating and email stuff before the router died a horrible death I took the kids for breakfast. Jane and I weren't eating (refer back to Hotel Saket comment) but the kids as usual were unstoppable in consumption of banana, and this time nutella, pancakes.

So we leave for Jodhpur with a very poorly Jane in the back seat wondering how she'll cope with 5 hours in a hot car. She got through it though.

It seemed that Kamal was either lost or taking a shortcut unknown to anyone else - I suspect the latter -but we had to stop to wait for the train to pass at Pipar Road Junction, in the middle of nowhere. Got out of the car and I spoke to some of the local men while Emiled smiled with some local girls. I suspect that they'd rarely seen, or maybe even never seen, western children as young as ours as they seemed very inquisitive although somewhat shy. 

As the train pulls out from the nearby station it seemed that everyone aboard wanted their photo taken. I oblige and realise that frames per second is worth worrying about when buying a new SLR: I hadn't done. I really enjoyed this experience. Real India, real people.

 

Five very hot travellers arrive in Jodhpur, 240 kms and 4.5 hours travel; it's time for lunch as it's already 2:15pm.

A rest (and a sleep for the older ones) later and we go out for a walk in Ratanada, the area surrounding our hotel. We're on the look out for the restaurant named Bollygood which sounds fun. Rough Guide's map is hopelessly inaccurate so we return and ask the hotel where the restaurant is. The point out the location on the map and second the recommendations I'd got from Rough Guide and people from IndiaMike.

Tonight we dined in the hotels' courtyard. Feeling slightly poorly didn't dissuade me from try their mixed tandoori platter which was served with a sublime mint sauce. Internet connection seems good so some more blogging has to be done to appease those critical of the recent lack of updates - although I can't image they're that bothered.

 

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Apr 04 2009

I'll Push This Car Out Of Pushkar If I Have To

Pushkar was included in my itinerary for only one reason: to split up the journey from Jaipur to Jodhpur. I was interested to see the tiny lake surrounded by 500 temples but really I should have known it wouldn't be my kind of place: there's something about deeply religious cities or towns that does me in, probably because it's not my religion, if indeed I actually have one (sorry Dad, you know what I mean I'm sure!).

We made our way to the ghats via the Jaipur Ghat - each Maharajah had his own bathing ghat into the lake - after buying four lovely cushion covers (for Jane obviously; men don't do soft furnishings right?) for Rs350 (about £5) for the conservatory. We were immediately accosted by Bramin priest, authentic or not I'm not sure.

"Take these petals and throw them into the lake" he said, followed by words like "everyone pays us a fortune for these petals and if you don't the market sellers will shun you". We walked on thinking that the last market seller seemed more than happy to take our money at 5pm; apparently we were his first customer of the day, yeah right!

At this point I thought, "I'll push this car out of Pushkar if I have to" (hey, no groaning, it wasn't meant to be a joke).

After buying another pair of Kameez trousers for Amy from another happy-to-see-the-non-worshipping-foreigners we returned to our hotel, the Green Park resort for dinner. On the way we got stopped by an old man selling hand made shoes. "Oh no" I thought, here we go again, what is he going to try and sell me, hasn't he heard about The Downfall Of Ali Baba?  It turned out that his granddaughter was a few hundred yards away, would love to meet the girls and could he phone her to come quickly. I agreed and a mobile phone call and a puffed out 10 year old Indian girl arrived at the stall, not being able to talk, but happy to see two western children. A couple of photos later and a nice chat, we bid them farewell.

This chance meeting, followed by seeing a peacock up really close made Pushkar slightly more bearable.

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