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 05 2009

Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur - by Kev

I keep waking up at 5am but today I'm not bothered as I'm excited to see possibly the best fort in Rajasthan, if not India, Mehrangarh in Jodhpur.

A lazy breakfast later and at 10am Kamal is ready to take us to Mehrangarh, it's already very hot. Mehrangarh dominates the skyline here and the closer you get the more impressive it gets

 

We toured the fort for 3.5 hours, which is a record for me as I normally get bored after 1.5 or 2 hours. I've come to the conclusion that this will always be one of my favourite places to visit, surpassing perhaps even the Taj Mahal.

 

The sheer size of the thing is impressive from far or near, but the real beauty, just like that Taj Mahal, can only be seen close up.

 

I don't think I've read how long the fort took to build but it must have been years and years as the carving in virtually every sandstone wall is exquisite.

 

The coloured glass work was very beautiful within the dark rooms with the sunlight flooding through the glass.

 

We hadn't even realised that there wasn't a hawker or seller in sight, no hassle, whatsoever: are we still in India?

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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 03 2009

Jaipur: La Ville En Rose

Some Rajasthan cities are known by their colour and today we're in Jaipur, "The Pink City", so called because the walls of the old city are painted with a pink wash. On a colour theme, in a few days time we'll be moving on to Jodhpur, "The Blue City".

Jane and I have been to Jaipur before and I we fondly remember the guide's statement about the city when we went for a stroll through the city at rush hour: "There's 2 million people that live in Jaipur and on this walk you'll probably bump into most of them". How true it seemed then, but now it seems a whole lot busier. 

 

Yesterday we travelled to Amber Fort which is probably my favourite fort from my previous time in India. It truly is a wonderful place and would be 100% better if those pesky monkeys weren't around.

 

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Apr 03 2009

The Downfall Of Ali Baba

"Ali Baba" took 19 photographs of the family on our elephant ride to the Amber Fort and told me to meet him in the car park after our visit.

I forgot. He didn't and he chased the car up the road once he spotted us. We stopped and he thrust the photos in my hand. "Only 100 rupees each sir". I laughed.

So that'd work out at about 30 quid. I don't think so.

He quickly dropped his price again and again, without me saying anything, with each price drop so did his enthusiasm for selling the photos.

He'd obviously failed to realise that if I didn't buy them no-one else would.

I said 200 rupees and he laughed, or was it cried?

He tried to get our driver Kamal into the argument and get him to say that 500 was a good price - it was - but it was a difficult position for Kamal to get into so he refused.

Minutes later I handed two crisp 100 rupee notes to Ali Baba and we drove away, Kamal laughing at how cheap we had bought them for, he'd have paid double!

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Apr 03 2009

Amy's Last 48 Hours: Jaipur

Wednesday 1st April
We travelled to Jaipur for 3.5 hours. Then we drove to McDonalds for lunch before going to a tailors where I got measured for my very own Salwar Kameez (it's leggings with a long knee-length top), which will be ready in 24 hours. After that we went to the City Palace where I had audio guide to tell me about the palace history and buildings. We knew the Maharajah was in the city because the flag was flying high. We saw two collosal silver urns made from 15000 silver coins melted down until they could be made into the urn. The urns carried water from the sacred River Ganges for the Maharajah when he visited the UK.

Thursday 2nd April
Today we went to the Amber Fort. When we drove the bend I saw the Amber Fort for the first time, it was very exciting and I said "Hey Emilia, look at the walls they are so big". As we arrived at the majestic Amber Fort we went up some steps to get on a elephant's back for the long slow ride up to the fort which was high up on a hill. It was very wobbly on the elephant's back and I felt slightly sick because of the smell of the elephant dung! When we got to the top of the hill we had 19 photos taken by Ali Baba which Daddy bought very cheaply. I can't wait to show my friends and family the photos of me on an elephant. 

Amy x

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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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