Not so much expensive...One snap please?

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Hello
So we have had a busy busy few weeks traveling around India - mostly with a day or two here and there with 12 hour train journeys in between. I'll try to give you an idea what we did in each place we visited below but be warned this might turn out to be an epic blog!

Varanasi
The first place we visited after Darjeeling. We found out it IS possible to fit three people and all their luggage in an Auto-Rickshaw (just) as we sped through the narrow streets to get to the ghat area where we had to get out and walk to our guesthouse (Shanti Guesthouse). We managed to spend about 5 hours on a boat on the Ganges while we were there for just one night and the best part of 2 days. It took us a while to acclimatise so we mostly ventured out of the hostel in the evening for a 3 hour boat trip and then again early in the morning to see the sunrise.

The Ganges is a very odd place - it was quite surreal to be out in a boat amongst some pretty polluted water yet the people that live there wash in it, swim in it and even drink it. Our boat guide said he has drunk the water all his life (straight from the river - no treatment at all) because he was born here he has a strong stomach (he said "you drink the water maybe you get ill" - i don't think there would be any maybe about it!). We saw the burning ghats where people queue up to burn the dead so they go to Nirvana and we were told that there are 4 cases when bodies are not burnt and are just tied to rocks and put into the river...
1) Children and pregnant women
2) Holy Men
3) People who died from Cobra bites
4) People with Leprosy
Occasionally these ropes attaching rocks to the bodies break and the bodies float up to the surface. If the body is floating on the town side of the river someone ties a rock back to the remains and rows to the middle of the river to sink it. If the body floats on the flood plain side of the river as our guide said "dog and eagle eat it".
We asked him if it worried him to be swimming in a river and drinking from it when there were dead bodies in it, he said they believe that once dead the soul goes to Nirvana and "body is garbage". I guess if you have grown up with the river and the customs there you would get used to it after a while!

We saw the Pooja Festival on the side of the river during the evening. There was lots of singing and burning of incense and throwing of flowers as well as some people lighting floating candles to put into the river. It was really busy there with lots of Indians sitting on the side of the river watching the performance. We took a short walk through the lanes through the ghats the following day and tried not to get lost. Motorbikes whizz past you and cows are obstacles in the narrow lanes which are pretty dirty and a bit smelly too - we didn't spend long there before heading back to the guesthouse, i think the River is the main thing to see in Varanasi really.

Delhi
We arrived early in the morning after a fairly hot train ride from Varanasi, luckily we could check into our hotel room straight away which was nice. We were expecting it to be busy and full of people pestering us, other travelers had told us Delhi wasn't up to much, but we were pleasantly surprised. We took a walk down to Connaught Place which was huge, much bigger than i thought it would be, but then it is the Capital City. After asking a few people for directions to an underground market and being taken to the wrong place we eventually found the place we were looking for. It was full of little shops with every owner trying to get our attention "Hello Miss, what you looking for...nice shirt...nice bag...belt...wallet..." Anyway we found a nice silver shop and sat in there for a while before heading out into the heat and getting a rickshaw round to the old city.

We took a look at the biggest mosque in India - Jama Masjid which was pretty impressive, and the floor was boiling - note if visiting mosques take a spare pair of socks!! We sat in the shade there for a while before heading over the road to look at the Red Fort. It was a very nice set of buildings within nice gardens, we walked for a little while before sitting on the grass in the shade for a while. Some young Indian guys came up to us and asked for the usual "one snap please" or " Please miss one photo" After telling them we didn't really want our picture taking (it certainly wasn't the first time or the last) they started chatting to us for a bit. They wanted to know where we were from, why we weren't married, what we planned to do and then tried to get our email addresses from us (no chance!). They were only friendly and curious and pretty polite really - a lot of people wont ask before pointing a camera in your direction!

Agra
The shortish train journey from Delhi to Agra got in for late evening and we went to bed pretty much straight away after getting a rickshaw to the hotel. We were up and out of the room by 5.30am and went to get tickets for the Taj Mahal. It really is an impressive building set in lovely gardens with fountains and lots of grass and trees. We spent a bit of time taking pictures straight away before the crowds got too busy and then headed for a look into the building itself. Though the inside is interesting and has some intricate decorations the outside is so much more beautiful. We found a quiet spot to the edge of the gardens to sit for a while and were surprised that we could find a patch where no one else passed us in the time we sat there. By the time we left it was getting busy with coach tours and we made our way by cycle rickshaw (you can also fit three people on one cycle rickshaw if you try) to Agra Fort.

Agra Fort is an old collection of Palaces and again lovely gardens. Most of it isn't as well preserved as the Taj Mahal and there are bits of graffiti on the walls here and there. A lot of the painted and decorated walls are warn away or inlaid stones have been taken from the area which is a shame. However there are a couple of rooms which have been very well looked after and you can see that it would have been stunning in its day. The guide we had told us that it had been built overlooking the Taj Mahal and there was even a passage leading from one to the other underground.

Having seen pretty much most of what Agra has to offer, the town is tiny, we took a rickshaw back to the hotel. We did happen to stop at the rickshaw drivers boss' factory where he made stone inlaid marble tabletops/plates and other things...it was pretty interesting really and they weren't pushy so we had a little look around (we were not the only tourists to end up there either!). We spent the afternoon trying to catch up on postcard writing (yep we have sent some....who knows if you will get them though...) sitting in a rooftop cafe overlooking the Taj chatting to a father and son from Leeds - its a small world!

Jaipur
After an epic train journey which was 4 hours delayed (meant to leave at 6.15am left at 10.20am) we arrived in Jaipur only to be picked up by a friendly rickshaw driver/guide who took us around the city for the next couple of days. I don't think we would have seen half the things we did as easily or been to so many nice silver shops if it wasn't for him...

On the first evening we went to see a Monkey Temple on top of a hill, walking quickly past the snake charmer as we didn't want to get too close to the cobra we saw some lovely views over the city from the top of the hill. After this we went to see a lovely textile shop which supply Monsoon and Ikea back home with fabrics - didn't buy too much but there were lots of pretty things in there! Then onto a jewelery shop with a weird/amazing guru depending on opinion - we didn't spend too long there and didn't buy anything as we were all pretty shattered and needed to get some sleep.

After a lie in we headed out again on another tour....First stop was a tower in the middle of the Pink City, we walked up and up the narrow spiral staircase getting tired and dizzy before getting to the top! Some pretty good views of the busy streets below before the walk back down again! Then onto City Palace for a little wander round there, some amazing old clothing and carriages as well as a huge silver vase thing and more stunning buildings. We headed to another fort and temple area where the rickshaw drivers friend had a small shop. She was a widow with two kids and was going to paint some henna on us...we left with hands and ankles/legs covered it was amazing work - mostly all worn off now though!

We went to look at the water palace where Oli decided to try her hand at Elephant riding (we didn't want another go - not so comfy the old elephants...) and we took some pictures. Then another jewelery shop - what a mistake, too many pretty things ("not so much expensive..."), we could definitely open up a shop when we get home! We had an amazing Thali that night at a different hotels roof top restaurant - they are good as you get to try a bit of everything, lots of different curries!

The next day we headed to Amer Fort to have a look around. We walked up avoiding guides and postcard sellers to get to the entrance. There was a bit of repair work going on in the first courtyard but we went onto look at the mirror room which really was very pretty. Again we seemed to be as much as an attraction as the beautiful building and tried to avoid/look away from anyone trying to take our photograph. After a quick stop in an amazing antiques place full of old Indian doors, statues and sculptures as well as smaller items we decided we were definitely shopped out! It was hot and so we headed over for a cooking course at the henna ladies sisters house... We prepared all the veg first and then set to cooking loads of curry. I think we started cooking around 4pm and didn't finish until 7pm. It was pretty hot work but the food was good and we had made enough for us and her husband and 3 kids to eat too.

The following day we had a rest from sightseeing and relaxed around the guesthouse feeling like we had seen so much we couldn't see any more. It was nice not to rush around and to enjoy the lovely rooftop cafe at our hotel (Hotel Pearl Palace - definitely worth a stay if you are in Jaipur)/

Our last day in Jaipur and we had to say bye to Oli early in the morning. We checked out later and headed in a rickshaw over to another hotel to use the pool. The place was deserted and we had the pool to ourselves for an hour- it was lovely to be in cool (if a bit buggy!) water for an hour. We headed back to the hotel to spend the afternoon in the rooftop Cafe again before our train at 10.40pm to Udaipur. The train was the quietest we had been on and we had a relatively good nights sleep before getting to Udaipur bright and early the following day

Udaipur
We had to wait to check into our room and had some breakfast while they cleaned the room. We were staying at Panorama guesthouse and had a corner room with big windows on two sides and a balcony in front of one of them and wonderful air conditioning - not bad for 5 pounds a night each!
After a long nap ( we had decided to take it easy after sightseeing madness in Jaipur) we headed out for a wander round the old city. We hadn't been planning on shopping too much but then we saw all the lovely shops...oh dear...! We went into a silk painting shop and the friendly owner showed us a good selection of his paintings, needless to say we left with a few nice ones!

During our time in Udaipur we visited City Palace - really easy to walk yourself around as there is a one way system! More amazing buildings and decorations and courtyards as well as displays of art and a random shop selling Ganesha related items! We also made our way to a musical fountain at Sunset point - it was amazing, playing some brilliant Indian tunes along with a light and water show with views towards the palace, definitely worth a look for 5 rupees each!

After the show we could see what we thought were loads of birds flying down over the rather low lake just after sunset, then as they started flying up the lake towards us we realised what they were. There must have been thousands of huge bats - we had never seen so many and probably never will again. It reminded us of the night we spent in our hotel restaurant in Agra when a small bat flew into the room. It was swooping from one corner to the other and had really spooked the waiter who was crouching down by the table clinging to Oli. When the bat finally left the room we tried to ask the waiter why he was so scared as the bat probably wouldn't have hurt him or flown into him. He just looked at us and said "Bat, it has face like dog" - I don't think he would have liked Udaipur!

We went on a whistle-stop sightseeing tour of Udaipur visiting Kings gardens and Princess gardens (where only girls were once allowed - not any more!) before heading round to a Folk Art museum with a brilliant and amusing puppet show. We also stopped off at a local fruit, veg and spice market which was interesting to look around before seeing a beautiful temple and the royal cenotaph- an amazing place! One evening we also made it up to Monsoon Palace, only just in a rickshaw - we had to stop to let the engine cool down on the way up the hill! The sunset from here was pretty and there were quite a few monkeys running around the place, it wasn't the clearest of nights though and quite hazy.

Anjuna
So now we are at the last stop of our trip (unless you count one night in Mumbai). We flew down to Goa from Udaipur a couple of days ago and have been relaxing on and around the beach here. Its not high season and many of the shops and cafes are shut up for the summer. Its still really quite pretty and im kind of glad its not too busy. We went to the famous flea market on Wednesday, the last one of the season. It was pretty small i think compared to what it can be sometimes but there were still plenty of opportunities to buy the odd souvenir. We walked the length of the beach and down the main road and round back to our hostel (Martha's Breakfast House) for the rest of the day. There are still a few tourists about but just as many Indian tourists as foreigners i would think.

We spent yesterday reading by the beach and taking a dip in the sea - the waves are pretty ruthless here but its nice once you get out past where they break. We found some sun loungers with a parasol so managed to stay in the shade most the day and went to one of the beach front bars for a drink later in the evening. One couple down on the beach were feeding a cow a bottle of beer....it seemed to go down pretty well i think! We went to Mapusa today for the Friday market and a look around, it was busy and bustling with people and reminded us we were still in India.

Just one day left here now, we will probably sit by the beach again then a 12 hour train journey up to Mumbai on Sunday and then flights to Heathrow and Manchester on Monday! So i guess that concludes our travel adventure. Its been great but i think we will be glad to get back to England, the cooler weather and catch up with friends and family 😊

Thanks for reading this epic update and all the rest of our blogs, we hope they have been informative and kept you up to speed on where we have been and what we have been up to.

See you all very very soon!
Love Katie and Izzy xxxxxxxxx

(P.S. I will add some more photos when i get back i promise - i did try in Darjeeling but every computer i put a memory card into gave it a virus so im going to wait until i get back home, not long now!)

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