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Published: April 30th 2007
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Taj Mahal
India's ultimate emblem lived up to all the hype Our around the world journey! Yep, after almost 9 months of travel, visiting 10 different countries on 3 separate continents, staying in over 100 different hotels, hostels, guesthouses and hovels, and covering at least 30,000 miles ... it is the end of the road for us! Our trip of a lifetime, our extended honeymoon in many ways, has come to an end. Sad!
But it has finished with one of the highlights of India, the magnificent Taj Mahal. Described as the most extravagant monument ever built for love, the Taj was constructed by Moghul Emperor Shah Jahan after his third wife died giving birth to their fourteenth child! The constuction bill is believed to have run to Rs 3 million, equivalent to about 35 million pounds in today's money! Visiting the Taj was a fantastic way to bring down the curtain on our travels.
When we last left you, we were in Fort Cochin in Kerala. Since then, we have covered an enormous amount of ground and visited numerous places; far too many to list here. So we will stick to the highlights, of which there are many!
The first would have to be the tea plantations of Munnar. Sitting at an
Cheesy Rider!
Touring the tea plantations of Munnar altitude of almost 1500 metres, the crisp cool mountain air felt like heaven on Earth after the suffocating humidity of the coast. We hired a motorbike for the day and rode up to the very top of the old hill station which afforded stunning valley views. The only drama was the sun. Mark amateurishly fell into the trap of thinking that the sun wasn't that hot and failed to apply any screen. After 6 hours on the bike with his arms outstretched like a mad sun worshipper, a painfull lesson was learned ... yet again. There is a reason why his friends call him Casper and although he may have escaped serious damage in the scorching sun of Australia, Thailand and Cambodia, it was time for another bout of fierce sun burn. So don't expect to see a tanned Ghost come the 2nd of May - most of what was miracously there has now sadly peeled off!
Our overnight cruise through the backwaters of Alleppey in Kerala also deserves mention. Yes, it was humid, but the scenery was once again stunning and our transport a spot of colonial luxury. Quiet canals lined with coconut palms and banana trees, provided
Prawns the size of lobsters!
Freshly caught in the backwaters of Kerala ... our evening meal. colourful snapshots of local village life - women washing clothes, kids playing in the water - it was like something out of a travel brochure. And the seafood was out of this world; see Sue holding our evening meal!
From the very tip of southern India we caught a flight to Delhi. Our usual mode of transport here has been the train, but with a 3 day journey time we decided to give that one a miss and take to the skies. Delhi is dusty and dirty but full of characters, and one of our favourites would have to be our taxi driver come tourist guide, Mr Chopra, a Sikh gentleman with a booming baritone voice and an equally loud yellow turban. As he frantically tried to sell us his services he explained that: "New colour car I am having! Yes, lovely car, new colour, all white. Same colour as old ... but new!" The next day, when he picked us up, it was in a battered old black and white autorickshaw. When Mark queried the whereabouts of the new colour car his question, as is so often the case in India, fell on deaf ears. Instead we got
Desert safari
Lawrence of Arabia - eat your heart out! yesterday's patter but with even more frenetic hand and arm gestures and maximum head wobbling! Suffice it to say, we jumped into the back of Mr Chopra's rickshaw without further ado and visited the sights of Delhi, both Old and New.
After Delhi, we headed into Rajasthan. Although the mercury was now into the 40s, the absence of the humidity of the south made things a lot more bearable. Over the course of the next two weeks we visited the Pink City of Jaipur, the Golden City of Jaisalmer, the Blue City of Jodpur and the White City of Udaipur. The highlights would have to be enchanting Jaisalmer and romantic Udaipur.
It was from Jaisalmer that we ventured into the Thar Desert ... on the back of a camel! Mindful of the oven like temperatures, it wasn't something we originally planned to do, but once again that wonderful Indian sales technique worked its magic. "Not hot" we got told, "No, not hot. At night you will need a blanket. I am promising you Mr Mark, absolutely not hot!" It sounded like nonsense but in our heart of hearts we wanted to do it and for once the sales
pitch proved true, we really did need a blanket at night. In fact, that night we enjoyed one of our coolest and quietest nights of sleep, in a stretch of rolling sand dunes with a million stars or more for company. Dare we say it ... all rather romantic!
The romantic theme continued with Udaipur. Built around a beautiful lake and surrounded by mountains, Udaipur is very pleasing on the eye, particularly in the evening. As the sun sets behind the mountain top Monsoon Palace, the serene Lake Palace and imposing City Palace light up and take centre stage. These fantastic buildings, testament to the fairytale imaginations of the Maharanas, are best viewed from one of the many superb lakeside restaurants. (For those less interested in the romance, Udaipur is where much of the James Bond movie Octopussy was filmed ... Octopussy's home is the Lake Palace.) Udaipur was one of those places we found extremely difficult to leave.
Our final destination, before finishing with the Taj, was Ranthambore National Park - you may recall out quest to see tigers. Well, we are pleased to report that we were fortunate enough to see four of the furry little
Tigger!
One of the four tigers we spotted in Ranthambore National Park, Rajasthan man eaters; one adult female and three cubs, aged about 7 months old. It was a dream come true, we had actually seen wild tigers in their natural habitat.
And that is it - our final blog . We can only hope that you have enjoyed reading them as much as we have enjoyed writing them. To all those we have met on our travels, let's stay in touch and to all those back home, see you soon.
That's all folks, next stop Heathrow!
Mark and Sue
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Big Steve
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Fantastic
Well done to both of you, it has been great to read and see your globtrotting in all it's glory. An unforgettable experience that will stay with you forever. Now enough of that already!!it must be your round(s) by now, hurry up and get back goddammit!!