Whirlwind travelling: Delhi, New York, Buenos Aires and the Scottish Highlands!

Well I originally held off publishing this next blog until I had enough new material, but it now turns out I have more than enough!! In the past month I've been travelling a lot for work, including going to Delhi for 3 nights, New York for 1 night, Buenos Aires for 2 nights and then, for pleasure rather than work, to Scotland for 3 nights .... so lots of places but all very quickly! Despite the exhaustion from jetlag, it's been great and I'm definitely not complaining with all these fabulous travel opportunities work has presented me this last month!

So, what am I doing at work you might be thinking? Well we have a project based out of the UK where we are working a lot with our offices in Argentina and India, thus requiring me to head out there a bit, especially in these early stages of the project. So there will be even more travel to come and next time for a bit longer which will be great!

Getting out and about in Delhi
I flew into Delhi and was immediately confronted by the heavy humidity and heat in the air. Although somewhat different to the April snow we were having in London on the day I departed, once adjusted I really lapped up the warmth on my skin and was enjoying the unfamiliar scent in the air of being in a new part of the world. I'd never been to India before, so I was very keen to get out and about and see a few things in my brief stay.

So whilst the UK was still sound asleep and work was not knocking on my door, I dumped my stuff at the hotel and headed out and about in Delhi for a couple of hours. I saw the amazing Humayun's Tomb, that apparently was the inspiration behind the Taj Mahal, see if you can spot the design similarities in the photo! I also saw the prestigious India gate, designed by Sir Edwin Luytens, as well as his famous Parliament House. I also went to the biggest Muslim Mosque in India (Jama Masjid) and climbed up one of the minarets (towers) for an amazing view over the hustle and bustle of Old Delhi with rickshaws, bikes, cars, buses, cows and people going in every direction simultaneously!! Delhi is certainly a diverse city and I was also able to visit a gorgeous Buddhist temple (Birla Temple) which was inaugurated by Mahatma Gandhi.

Delhi is just a buzzing city and the driving reminded me a lot of my time in The Philippines, as lane markings on the road are purely optional and trucks actually have signs on the back asking other drivers to 'honk your horn when passing' ... needless to say the city is a rather noisy one but nevertheless incredibly vibrant. I had some great food during my stay and I was constantly in awe of the amazingly bright colours of the saris, but I'm sure I wouldn't be capable of putting one on, it seemed very complicated!

Mesmerised by the Taj Mahal
Despite having seen hundreds of photos of the Taj Mahal, and many a documentary, there is absolutely nothing as spell binding as the first glimpse through the arched gate, where laid out before you is the beautiful 'gardens of paradise', the highly photographed lotus pool and the dramatic backdrop of the pure white tomb, gigantic and shimmery in the sunlight. It is also kind of eery as there is no noise of traffic to be heard, as cars are not allowed anywhere near the Taj so as not to cause pollution and darken the pure white marble. So it is perfectly peaceful and was quite a spiritual experience spending time wandering around the grounds.

As a little spot of history for those of you, like me, who need a reminder every now and then. The Taj Mahal was completed around 1648 and was built under Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, in memory of his favourite wife Mumtaz Mahal. Around 23,000 people were involved in constructing the complex over 23 years, at a cost of around 32 million Rupees at that time which is apparently equivalent to trillions of US$ if converted to present currency rates!! She was a very special woman hey! Shah Jahan actually bought property on the other side of the river bank and he was starting work on his own tomb opposite the Taj Mahal, which was to be a replica in black marble. However his son labelled him crazy, arrested him and placed him in Agra Fort prison and hence the black tomb was never built!

Getting to the Taj Mahal was quite an experience, it's about a 4 hour drive to Agra from Delhi and it was non-stop rally driving the whole way. At one point another car actually stopped our tour bus on the motor way and a very angry man gave our driver a stern 'talking to' in Hindi about what, we can only imagine, was his erratic driving (which to be fair wasn't that different to everybody else!). I did tend to agree though as at one point I woke up from a brief nap to find our car going the wrong way down a 2 lane highway at top speed and honking the horn for the other drivers (who were on the right side of the road!) to get out of our way. We were of course avoiding a traffic jam on our side of the road, but our driver obviously thought it was fair enough to inconvenience everyone going the other way in order to speed up our trip!! I thought I was going to die on a number of occasions but of course arrived safe and sound as always.


Over to the Americas - New York and Buenos Aires
Not long after my India trip, I was back out to the very familiar Heathrow airport and jetting my way over firstly to New York for just one day (so no shopping for me!) and then on to Buenos Aires. It was fantastic to be back in a spanish speaking country and before too long I was chatting away happily to the taxi driver and trying to recover my language skills that certainly weren't coming as easily as when I left last year!

Smoke, Shops and Familiar Faces
The first thing I did need explaining upon arrival was the ridiculous smoke hanging in the air like pollution, that meant it was near impossible to see anything at all and actually it was not unlike being quite close to a large fire, giving that smoky feeling to the eyes as well. It was in fact the result of some illegal burning off, done in protest to the Government and had caused a near disaster for Buenos Aires, which ironically means 'Good Airs' in english, not so this time round! Even my hotel was full of smoky air after having the rotating doors allowing the haze to enter all day. It was certainly quite different to last time I was here and I was glad to have seen it previously to know that the city was not normally like this!

I also took the opportunity to hit the shops on the one extra day I had in the city before returning back to London. Although the seasons are of course opposite to the UK, so all the stores were full of winter gear which was not so inspiring considering I'm mentally gearing up for summer and sun in London! I did still purchase a couple of things of course!!

It was great to be able to catch up with my Argentinian friend Milagros whilst I was in Buenos Aires and we had a fun night catching up and taking crazy pictures down by the port before I collapsed from tiredness following my hectic schedule of jetting around!


Walking in the picturesque Scottish Highlands
Last weekend, taking advantage of the May Bank Holiday, I travelled up to Aberdeen to visit my friend Jo and enjoy a roadtrip over to the west coast of Scotland with some of her friends. I must say that I was absolutely blown away with the beauty of the highlands where we were treated to spectacular view of lakes and mountains and a coast line spotted with quaint villages and deserted castles. It definitely far exceeded my expectations and I'd thoroughly recommend it for a weekend to get away from anything that feels remotely like a city!

The original event on the weekend's agenda was a walk in the highlands, where you are spoilt for choice with mountains to climb. Not having done any trekking since my adventures in Argentina and Chile last year, I was definitely keen to get back into it again. The weather forecasts did force us to change our plans, and as per usual, were completely and utterly wrong!! So, we ended up doing our climb up to the summit of the challenging Beinn Alligin, one of the giants of the Torridon mountains on the one day when there was rain, but I guess that's life in the Highlands! The climb took us 7 hours, climbing around 1,200 metres. but it was quite a tough 'scramble' in parts and although we were rewarded with great views early on, we were unfortunately unable to see anything other than a wall of white fog on the summit, through the rain dripping down our faces!! We were absolutely drenched, but I must admit that until the very final half hour, I was absolutely loving it!! The sogginess of my entire body did finally get to me and the last 30 minutes wasn't that pleasant but I thoroughly enjoyed the day and can't wait to get back there again to tackle another of the many mountains around.

We stayed in this great little town called Gairloch for a couple of nights, which had amazing coastal views and a very pleasant local pub where we had a couple of very enjoyable meals, wine and pud, the best thing being that we were only a stumble up the hill to our B&B.

The final day was also a highlight as we embarked on a great road trip around the coast with again some amazing views. The sun was shining and hot and back in Aberdeen we even had the sunroof open - it was a perfect end to a great weekend!

In between all this travelling around, I've still been the salsa, and I even went to a full weekend of salsa dancing in London at the annual 'congress' here a couple of weeks ago which was fantastic fun but very exhausting!! And lucky for me, I'm back to Argentina and India again over the next few weeks, so no doubt I'll have more blogs on the way then!

I look forward to hearing from you all and hope all is well,

Hasta luego,

Tamara :)

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