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Published: September 19th 2007
Day 3
We set out on the 9 hour drive to Pushkar which is a small village set in the hills in Rajasthan, the drive wasnt too bad, but felt sorry for the Taxi Driver but at least the car had air con, and we stopped for breaks along the way, we did get to see some beautiful country side.
Arrived at our hotel in the evening, the hotel was surprisingly nice we went for a walk down to the Holy Lake where we were blessed- had to say some Hindu words (could have said anything!!!!)
We went around the markets bought some food and had an early night as were tired from travelling.
Day 4
Spent the day strolling around the markets, we got mobbed by a group of school children and even the teachers!! they were on an outing and we have a picture of this, we brought some indian shoes and brett also brought a top- his top has proceeded to rip the first time he wore this, and died his skin red, the shoes have grown moss and had to be binned and his sandals came apart the 2nd time he wore them haha! they maybe cheap
Our journey to Pushka
Emily- has severe stomach cramps 4 hrs in to the 9 hour journey (only squat toilets available, a killer!!!!)but so is the quality!!!!.....but Emilys are fine thanks.
That afternoon we set off on a 4 hour drive to Jaipur and on the way we saw a wild Cobra, Emily made brett take a picture- he was like Steve Irwin!!!!- just as enthusiastic as Brett is!! arrr
Arrived in Jaipur in the evening at a lovely family-run guest house had a nice meal and another early night (brett had his first beer!)
Day 5
Spent the day taking in the sights of the city and the highlight being a drive to the Amber Fort, which is set in the mountains, we had an amazing elephant ride upto the fort, we also saw the elephants bathing in the river below with the indians, really sweet! that evening we played cards- Brett won but only just!! had afew beers and got eaten alive by insects!
Day 6
Up bright and early for a 7 hour drive to Agra, this was a little uncomfortable due to the road being very small and bumpy- we saw 2 accidents involving motor bikes- one looked really serious. Arrived at the Hotel in the evening which looked fab, got really excited by the menu and ordered
Our journey to Pushka
we had to stop the car a couple of times for the cows crossing-check out the horns a chicken steak which ended up being moshy chicken in the shape of a burger with some grosse sauce- we just both looked at it and hid the food under our napkins- even brett left his- we then went to McDonalds we spied across the road! and also looked around the shopping mall. (was no meadowhall though)
Day 7
Checked out the Hotel in the morning- worse hotel as food nasty (didnt even have breakfast) and the staff were purvy and rude! later that day we visited the sights not that there were many but this included the very beautiful Taj Mahal, we luvd the Taj and made up for the unpleasentness we had experienced!!
Would advise everyone to see the Taj Mahal. We also got took to a shop which wanted to sell you pictures (why would we need one??? Had a sitting across a desk with the oldest looking Indian man in the world, Brett said he looked like beetlejuice- he said Brett looked cross between Shagavar and a beetle (due to his hat) he spat greenies out while he was talking and then got one stuck to his finger- very funny!!!
Made our way to the train
station for 6.00pm departure to Goa, we had 2nd class sleeper 2 teir, was just 4 beds with a drawn curtain, had to share with a strange Indian man and lots of cockroaches!! Emily cried at all the bugs and made Brett sit up most of the night zapping them with spray (which Indian man did not approve of)
Day 8
Still on the train, still sat in same potision, high light of our journey was when the inidan tried to take our picture on our camara, but as he had it back to front we ended up with a picture of his big eye- we found that hilarious- spazy Brett deleated it much to Ems horror!!!
Day 9
Much better nights sleep! Arrived at Margoa at 7.00am, then we caught a local train to old goa which took just 35mins, a 10 min taxi ride to Panjim, then 2local buses to reach Baga-our final destination, 40 hours after we left Agra!!!!! we checked into a guest house beach cottage run by a lady with a dodgy bottom lip- booked for 3 nights, it was really nice, had a swimming pool and a cockroach in our bedroom the size of
a mouse so Emily didnt sleep much that night!!
Days 10-18
Just relaxed in Baga, ( North Goa) having nice food (baked beans wow), steak and tiger prawns, Brett loves his steaks and beer!!
We hired a moped which enabled us to visit different resorts, we also went to some beaches in the north and Emily got some cool Ali Baba pants and some bracelets. We also saw an indian man laid out on the beach, he had just drowned and the police were taking him away- really upset us both.
During our stay in Baga it rained for 2 days solid so not much to do!
Moved Guest houses which we managed to get for a good rate, stayed there for 6 nights (a women with a wobberly head worked there) and the boss had the best Charlton wisp we had ever seen. the guest house was a little older but still had a pool, was on the beach, well what more do you want for 2.50p a night? Another downside was the room was so damp as it never ever got sun light, it rotted Bretts leather shoes and started to rot another pair, and a pair of
Emily's but salvaged them and left them outside for the remainder of our stay. Clothes smelt of cheese and beds started to smell of vinigar, unless we had the fan on to waft the air- was very glad to leave!!!!
One night we got invited to a traditional indians house (elephant festival), this is the biggest festival, which is held once a year and is equivalent to our Christmas. Sudesh is Bretts dads friend, who he met a few years ago! we enjoyed some lovely, yet different food (local Goan), and fireworks!! Emily got a little scared as they lit them and then threw them in the air, they were really loud!! Brett set some of the big ones off and Emily bottled it and set some of the smaller ones off instead- didnt want to blow her legs off!!! We joined the locals, and visited houses, where they sung and played drums, at the end a prayer was said and they threw rice grains at their God- shouting ''Moria" ''Moria'' but we were shouting ''Gloria'' ''Gloria'' the festival ended by everyone meeting at the local stream in the dark at about 11 o clock- Brett fell over down a
our journey to pushka
iccle donkey....arrrr big ditch in the hole and sacrificed his head for the camara!!! few bumps, hard to damage that area!! haha just a bruised ego! The heads of the house followed each other in to the stream, with status of the elephant God who they then left in the stream to melt away....they do this each time so have to buy a new one each year. We were given this food to eat- like coconut rice but we didnt really like it- Emily kept trying to get Brett more of it from the locals!!! then the rain came (very heavily) this didnt seem to bother the locals, but we were really really wet and wanted to leave- we were getting bitten to death from all the mozzies- had some right monster bites the next morning- Sudesh's mum and sister took us back to the house to dry off- Brett got the biggest cockroach ever in his hair- no kidding- it was the size of a rat- glad Brett had it and not Emily!!!!
Day 19- 29
Setting off to the South of Goa involving 4 buses to Palolem, which will be our home for the next 10 days, we are in
our journey to pushka
our view for 9 hours!!!!!!! a lovely guest house with a nice shower (halleluia) we got this for 4 pounds a night and initially booked for 4 nights but as we like it we have decided to stay at the Guest house throughout our stay in Paloem! We really love it here and its by far our most favorite resort to date......we love the food and the atmosphere, lots of travellers! We bought some more clothes as they are too nice to resist and so cheap (rucksacks are bulging now) we got 3 pr trousers, 4 tops, 2 bandanas and another pashmina to add to the collection - all this for 15 pounds! The pashmina was 1.75p, at home I buy these for 30 pounds- I love it!!!!
The beach is beautiful, but there are quite a few cows!!! Brett nearly got concusion after a near collision with a Kayack-managed to duck under it!!!
Tonight- Brett is getting dreadlocks (Knew it wouldnt be long as he has always wanted them) its going to take 5-6 hrs so Em is going to be sat there for some time!!
Brett had his dreadlocks done at a local ladys house, she had quite a big family and 3
Pushka
........we finally arrived at evening time of her daughters helped, it took 5 hours altogether and he will have to go back to get the dreadlocks tidied up, it was hard for them to do as the hair was short and soft, they were really nice and one of the daughters had 2 sons, one of the sons was 6 months old, his bed looked like a big Sari that was hung from the ceeling (like a hamock) and they swung him to sleep, (looked like they swung this quite rough but that must just look that way to us!!)
The other day we went for a walk in to the next town (Canacona, a small, very dusty, scruffy Indian village) to get some money from an ATM, as there are none in Palolem, we normally catch the bus but wanted to walk the 7.5kmto there and back to get some excercise, Brett was lecturing all day about wearing some sensible shoes to walk in as the road is very bumpy, stoney and dusty, so we went back to the room to change and then when we got down the road, Brett realized he hadnt put his sensible shoes on!!! just flip flops (wasnt happy but
Pushka
a camel grazing just outside our hotel-Pushka is famous for camel racing couldnt be bothered to walk back) further down the road Brett wsa busy looking at a bar when he slipped in a cow pat and said he had broken his big toe, it went purple and I havent heard the last of it!!! (no sympathy) Emily was laughing as he had cow s**t all up his leg and in his toes, he was sulking then for the rest of the way haha!! Told him he should have worn sensible shoes!!!!!!!
The next day Brett decided to have a tatoo, we went to the tatooists house and Brett described and did an illistration of the tatoo he wanted, we went back the day after and the tatooist had done several designs, Brett picked the one he like and that was that, his tatoo quoted his favorite saying ''Whatever you love doing keep doing it''- Brett's Philosophy to life!!!
Day 30-33
We will be taking the coach up to Mumbai, which will take 12 hours for our final days in India, we will be seeing the sights of Mumbai.
We arrived in Mumbai at around 7.30am after the horrible (brett) coach journey, Emily preferred to the train, as couldnt see any bugs
and it was cleaner! Just very very cold, bumpy and full of snoring indians!!
We got into a taxi and the driver was a Shiek, and tried to rip us off by pretending his metre was broken, we were prepared for this having read about scams, having being really tired we got in the taxi and he took us to a hotel in east Mumbai. When we got to the hotel he quoted a price (about 6 pounds for 15 mins work) and brett argued for about 20 mins with him and we ended up paying 2.50p. The hotel was ok but really expencive as to what we had paid previous, we had heard Mumbai was expencive from other travellers. We went for a walk round the streets and for some tea, Everyone seemed to be amazed by Bretts hair, and he stole the limelight from Emily which she was pleased about. On our second day we hired a taxi for the day and asked him to take us sightseeing- we went to south Mumbai, which is a very nice reigon, but passing the slums along the way- they looked more like a dumpsite and this is apparently where around
Pushka
one of many temples in the town 50% of Mumbaites live. We then went to the Gateway of India and strolled around the shops, we saw Montblanc, Gucci, Versace, Lois Vitton really strange to see these designer shops in a city where there are lots of people living on the streets with a plastic sheet for a home! We saw the Taj Mahal Palace- the plushest hotel in Mumbai, We drove down Marine Drive and also went to the beach in Mumbai (wierd- a beach in the city!!!!!) we saw museums and statues around the city.
Brett had a Mcdonalds and then we headed back to the hotel to collect our bags and head to the airport.
We arrived at the airport at 5.30pm and we were due to fly at 12.30am, so we had 7 hours to kill, a long time when there are no shops and just one snack bar.
Our month in India has been unforgettable, and an experience we will look back on, really glad to have vistied, and survived, everything from now should be a doddle haha!!!!!
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