Desert Sands and Kingfisher

Dear all, thanks for all your messages, I'll keep trying to update as much as I can, although the computers in India seem to take about an hour to upload a single page, so it can be quite a trying process! Anyways, for the moment:

Day 4 and 5, Thursday and Friday 23 and 24/10/08, Delhi

My last two days in Delhi were marred by a stinking cold that I picked up, and which I'm still trying to get rid of the last of now. Hence, you should imagine all the experiences related here through a veil of phegm, and obscured by tissues, coughing and general unattractiveness. Just for realism of course. On a side note; mother you will never know how thankful I was for the packs of tissues you made me put in my backpack before I left, never again will I question your need to prepare for eventualities.
Heading to quieter climes Thursday morning I took a tuk tuk to Delhi Zoo, which is big enough and safari-enough alike that I was about to assauge my traditional English-liberal unease about zoos. Indeed, its more a conservation and breeding centre than anything else. Wonderfully quiet (apart from the inevitable massive group of schoolblys, and no, looser clothing doesn't make a difference...) and a nice place to spend a few hours. Had wondered at the fact that the entire time I'd been in Delhi I'd not yet seen a single monkey roaming around, contrary to what I'd been expecting. After the zoo, I'm profoundly glad. Having just sniggered at and taken a photo of the sign saying "Beware of stray monkeys" I bought an icecream to sooth my throat. No sooner had I taken two licks then this huuuge monkey galloped out of the nearest bushes, fully leapt on me, swatted my icecream out of my hand, and ran off with it, to the hysterical laughter of a crowd of onlookers. Bastard. I've learnt my lesson - monkeys are mean and nasty and I *don't* like them. Sorry Chatts.
After a serene morning I headed to Humayun's Tomb, a mausoleum of one of the first mughal emperors and the forerunner in design for the Taj Mahal. Quite a sight, and surrounded by gardens which I was happy to kick back in. Yes, you'll *eventually* get the photos for these things. Spent a long time walking home in the heat though, as tuk tuk drivers kept quoting me ridiculous inflated prices to get back into central Delhi and I refused to pay triple what it had cost me to get there in the morning. Of course, the difference was equivalent to about 1.20 GBP..... but, but, its the principle of the thing. Eventually realised I was cutting my nose off to spite my own face and so gave up, having found someone willing to take me back for only double the real price.
Gotta admit, Thurs evening was probably my most miserable evening yet. Was in that horrible stage of a cold where you're too bunged up to even do *anything*. Additionally, I needed to change a travellers cheque before I could spend any money, so I gave the evening up as a bad job and went to bed fairly early, comforted by the thought that the next day I was heading to a *nice* hotel in the suburbs of Delhi to meet my tour group. Uhuh.
Next day, check out of the hotel, head to Karol Bagh, the richer tourist enclave, and hit the jackpot. Niiice hotel, at least in comparison with where I'd been for the past 4 days. Air con, bed linen, hot water... I cannot describe the delight. On the other hand, no promised info from tour guide on when briefing meeting is, or the recommended restaurants/maps of the area. Ok... head down to reception. They inform me that I'm actually the only person booked for this specific tour, so there won't be a meeting. The tour leader will come to my room at some point. Right. I have a bath, I have a snooze, I flip through a few channels of Indian pop music on the TV, I wonder round Karol Bagh and get some lunch, no tour leader. This is stupid. I decide to head out to the Red Fort, Delhi's most famous attraction and one I was saving for today, and come back later, figuring that if I'm not told a specific time then the guy can hardly blame me for not being there. Several hours later and a ruined old fort viewed and admired, I head back to the hotel. Reception gives me a train ticket for Jaipur, leaving at 4.20 in the morning, and tell me that I am meeting the tour leader in Jaipur. Cue phone calls to Australia, where the emergency tour contact is, to find out what the hell is going on. Apparently the guy was here for an hour, but me having been out, has already gone onto Jaipur. A taxi has been booked to pick me up from the hotel at 3.30am, the driver will put me on the right train, and I'll be picked up at the other end by my leader. Somewhat pissed off, but deciding not to dwell, I head out to a bar for the rest of the evening, sadly lacking in other travellers to talk to, but nevertheless enjoyable, as Divali, the Hindu festival of lights was being celebrated on the streets.

Day 6, Saturday 26/10/08, Jaipur

Ummm.... so this day, to say the least, did not start off well. Firstly, the taxi does not show up. At 4am in desperation I call one of my own to take me to New Delhi station, where I was specifically told the train left from on the phone the previous night. Get to New Delhi station at 4.05am, only to find out that the train in fact leaves from Old Delhi train station, a 15 min taxi ride away. Cue much cursing Tucan Travel tours under my breath. A kindly soul takes me to a government travel office across the street, where they explain to me that the next available train would be at 3pm and would get me into Jaipur at midnight. Alternatively, I could get a pre-paid taxi there, which would take about 5 hours but would at least leave now. I get the taxi, thinking even more bad thoughts about Tucan Travel in general, and my tour guide (called Papi) in particular. I finally arrive in Jaipur at about 9.30am, pretty tired, pretty hungary, and pretty damn pissed off, and have to call Australia again in order to get my tour guide informed that I now need picking up. The whole thing cost me $145 US dollars. (No worry mum, obviously they're refunding it all!)
Anyway, you will be comforted to hear that since that morning things have been great. Papi came to pick me up, apologised a lot, took me back to the hotel and gave me my briefing and then took me on a tour of the 'Old City' in Jaipur. We've since discovered that the train times have changed since my ticket had been booked a month ago, and thus Papi's taxi driver came to pick me up at 4.15 rather than 3.30 to reflect this. He had failed however, to inform either Papi or myself of this fact. Grrr.
Anyways, I was in Jaipur now, fed and watered, and decided there was no point sulking about the whole incident, otherwise it would ruin the rest of the weekend. Apparently the train was massively delayed at some point in the journey and didn't get into Jaipur until 11.30am anyway, so I guess I did alright out of the whole thing. My tour guide, Papi, is a Goan, and is certainly a character. Ponytailed and permenantly sun-glassed, he smokes a lot (of stuff), drinks a lot, likes dance music, is a complete foodie, and is generally quite a cool guy to be around. Knows a hell of a lot too, although his mantra is that he's a professional from sun-up to sun-down, and then he parties with the rest of us. He knows *everybody* too, and all the hotels we stay in are his properties, so we do pretty well out of it all.
Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan, the desert state to the west of Delhi, and almost all of its building are painted a pink colour originally instituted by one of its kings, and retouched when Prince Albert came to stay at the turn of the century. Its Old Town is full of palaces, bazaars and traffic, and its pretty striking as a whole. The L(onely) P(lanet) spoke about its noise and traffic and about people harassing you to buy things, but I've got to say that in comparison to Delhi the place was a haven! I think actually that hitting the madness of Delhi first was a great idea, as it not only means that I can deal with most other places now, but also that everywhere is nicer in comparison!
I wondered round the streets and a couple of the palaces in the afternoon, then met the rest of the group for dinner. Whilst I was the only person starting on this particular tour with Tucan, hence why there wasn't anyone else in Delhi, for the rest of the tour I am travelling concuurently with all those people doing the 41 day tour whose routes intersected with mine for all or part of the way. Cool group as well, containing 3 British guys (who were great fun), a Yorkshire lass, a German couple, a Thai-Australian guy and a Canadian girl. I am by far the youngest here (apart from two 25 year olds everyone else is around the 30 mark and have mostly quit their jobs and are taking year long trips around the world) but they're a good group, and we had a great night - going to a restaurant and then taking the drinking back to the hotel later. Boxhead, boys and girls, remember the name. More leathal than Ring of Fire and more prolonged too. We will be playing it at some point.

Day 7, Sunday 27/10/08

Today we all woke up slightly groggy and set off to the Amber Fort, except for two of the guys who were still throwing up from the night before. Heheh. Gotta admit, having been doing things on the cheap, it was fit being driven to this place in plush, air conditioned cars, and having a private guide to explain things to us. Eugene certainly knew his stuff, and it does make a difference in terms of sightseeing. Amber Fort is outside of Jaipur, its former seat of power built in the 10th century, and its pretty damn impressive. The Mugals go for this really intricate marble carving and mirrorwork on their architecture (no figures allowed in Buddist decoration), and some of it was really quite spectacular. After lunch we headed back to the hotel and had a brief siesta to recover for the night before, before heading to my first Bollywood film in the evening. Obviously its all in Hindi, but it was fantastic fun - huge dance routines, a wheelchair-bound guy singlehandedly beating 30 guys to a pulp Kill-Bill-stylee, hilarious government propoganda. All in a cinema the size of a big theatre with a ridiculously large screen. A power cut half-way through (a common occurance in India), only enlivened things. I'm definitely gonna go back! After this Papi took us to the closest thing Jaipur has to a nightclub: this posh bar with a dancefloor. You could get these mahoosive bong-shaped kegs of beer which I swear must hold about 10 pints, and which cost about a fiver. Plus, getting fed up of the bar's hilarious 80s style music, Papi went into the DJ booth and sorted out his own playlist, which certainly got things going. Sadly the place closed at midnight, so we took back the party to the hotel, and kept going til the small hours, or, in the case of me, Papi, and this guy Phil, til 7.30 in the morning. Nice.......

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Part of trip: Backpacking around India and Nepal

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