Apr 20 2009

Last Day In India

Today marks our last full day in India.

It's quite sad to think we're leaving tomorrow but it does feel like we've been here a long time and to be honest I fancy eating some vegetables that haven't been mullered to death. I've been surprised by the lack of fruit in the restaurants too so it'll be nice to eat an apple: how odd?

I've lined up for Namaste India Tours to pick us up at 11am (in twenty minutes) to take us around a few of the sights I want the girls to see, including the wonderful Humayun's Tomb that I remember fondly from my last visit.

Last night we tried to count the list of monuments, tombs and palaces we've visited, safaris we've done and animals we've seen but we failed: we've done and seen so much.

Thank you for following this blog, it's been really nice thinking that friends and family have enjoyed reading the articles and seeing the pictures. We'll hopefully see some of you in a few days.

We've truly had a wonderful holiday.

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Apr 09 2009

Horse Riding In Udaipur - by Emilia

Early in the morning, I awoke because I was going to ride an indian horse; I was excited.

In my mind I thought: what are the horses going to be like?; how tall are they (10 feet tall - only joking)?; how fast are they?

Half an hour later, my mum, sister and I caught a tuk-tuk to the stables, when then got ridiculous hats which were large; mine was light sky blue! Next, we went to get our horses, mine was chestnut brown. Amazingly, I managed to get on the horse without a box to stand on; this for me was a great achievement as I normally use one when I go horse riding in England.

 I was lead through the countryside, the hills, countryside villages and rocky slopes. In the villages, everyone who we passed said 'Namaste' to us and was very friendly.

Afterwards, we went to a waterhole, there were boys fishing and having a swim; they caught two fish. Funnily, there was a boy who was naked, he jumped into the water and acted like a fish and did backflips off of a rock.

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Apr 05 2009

Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur - by Emilia

At 8:00 in the morning, I quickly got woken up by someone tapping their feet on my bed, even though I was extremely tired. Later, I got in the car; I then went up the long windy road to Mehrangarh Fort.

When we got into the fort I hired an audio guide; it was useful, explaining all the things we were looking at. Once we were in the first courtyard I noticed that the floor was not made of bricks but of marble, inlaid with gems; it was quite shiny and glimmered in the sunlight.

We explored round the Mehrangarh Fort, my family and I found out that elephants would try to attack however they would never be able to get in because there were long spikes on the door inline with the elephants head. Disgusting.

After the tour, which we did in three and a half hours, we went into the fort's shop and out the other side to find some market sellers there. I bought a really lovely lightweight scarf/stole which is very beautiful, dyed in blue and green.

Today I had a great day.

 

Emilia.

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Apr 04 2009

Heading To Pushkar - by Emilia

Kamal, who wanted to us to leave at 9am, was pleased to see us on time, for once. Five minutes later we got in the jeep; I was on my four-hour journey to Pushkar. Three or so hours later, nearing Pushkar, we counted 18 camels; they were extremely tall. Some of the camel were pulling carts however others were just staying still.

 

(NOTE: this isn't one of my photos, I grabbed it from the interwebbythingy) 

Eventually we got to our hotel, the Green Park Resort, which is great because it has a lovely swimming pool; our first one so far. Finally, we went for a long-awaited swim in the pool; it was really cold; it was lovely. After that I had my lunch, my sister and I both had a Margherita pizza - as Pushkar is a vegetarian town and no eggs either - it was very fresh and very hot (out of the oven). After lunch we had another swim, after waiting 30 minutes of course.

Last of all, my family and I went for a walk into Pushkar town, which is a town centered around a very religious lake which is surrounded by 500 hindu temples and bathing ghats leading into the lake. We were dodging cows and motorbikes all the time; it was quite scary. Overall, I had a great day.

Emilia.

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Apr 04 2009

Buying Handicrafts

Now don't get excited, I'm not buying anything for you but I thought I'd just mention about some of the things we've bought so far and their prices. I'm sure I didn't pay the lowest price for any of this but te prices do seem so low compared to back home.

In Agra, just outside the Taj Mahal - it isn't usually a good idea to buy anything near a tourist attraction but we couldn't help ourselves - we bought some lovely coasters made out of "marble" (I don't think!) with inlaid "precious stones" (not!) and carved too: 3 sets of 6 for Rs450, that's about £6.50.

A little boy selling guide books started out with his price for a rather ropey looking Taj Mahal guide book at "normally I sell for Rs2000 but for you Mister, RS1000". I laughed, walked on (repeat many times) and finally got it for Rs120 (£1.60ish)

In Jaipur the girls bought their Salwar Kameez's for £10 each and considering that Amy's was tailored made, I thought that's pretty cheap.

In Amber, Amy bought two cloth puppets (Maharajah and Maharani) with painted wooden faces for Rs150 (down from Rs1600) which is about £2.

In Pushkar last night we bought some cushion covers for Rs350, which is about £5.

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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 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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