Blogs from India, Asia - page 6

Later start today at 9.30am as it's basically a free day. Gordon and Peter had booked another driver like we did for the day, but Arjun said it wasn't necessarily as he and the driver were at our disposal. So we all cancelled the driver and just joined the optional cooking class. First stop for photos was the Albert Hall (at my request) which fortunately was on the way to the scheduled stop, the Lakshmi Narayan Temple. This is a beautiful Hindi Temple completely built with white marble. It was nice to witness the end of a service when we arrived. Had our first proper rain fall as we arrived but temperature today had dropped considerably. Week before we arrived the highs were over 40 degrees centigrade. This week, it's dropped to low 30s, much more ... read more

Started our bus trip to Jaipur at 8.50. Entertaining journey out of Delhi watching how the traffic completely ignores the lanes marked on the road, like they don't exist. Stopped at 11.45am for an early lunch at a nice place in the middle of nowhere called the Siva Oasis Resort. We discovered today that all our dinners are provided, so we ate a light lunch of creme of chicken soup and garlic naan for Daisy and a grilled chicken sandwich for me. Arjun also asked us to tip the rest room attendants. 10 rupees per person is a fair amount. We left to continue our journey at 12.50pm. The landscape changes towards Jaipur from flat to hilly. Many trucks are colourfully painted and have decorations. Arjun says it's because the trucks are like their home because ... read more

Fairly early start to the day . 4.40am wake up and our daughter, Krissy, kindly volunteered to drive us to the airport. Arrived there at 5.35am and a long line awaited us at the Singapore Airlines desk. Took about one hour to check-in and I mistakenly made the choice to get a small amount of Indian rupees at the foreign desk at the airport. Big mistake as the exchange rate was way under the official rate. Fee of $5 plus we only got 2,500 rupees instead of about 3,500. Never ever do that again. Having not travelled for so long, I had forgotten to do that earlier. Flight took off slightly .early at 7.55am and we arrived in Singapore early at 2:15pm.(8hours 20 min flight time). Our second leg to Dekhi was at 4.50pm. Timing was ... read more

Rameshwaram – Madurai – Kodaikanal : Nov-2022 Kodaikanal Kodaikanal is one of the best hill stations in South India. It is about 2 ½ hrs drive from Madurai. Other comparable places include: Munnar, Thekkady (both typically visited during Kerala tour), Ooty (nr. Bengaluru / Mysuru), Kunnur (nr. Ooty), Coorg (via Bengaluru), Chikamagalur (via Bengaluru / Mengaluru) etc. An advantage with all these places is that, they being in south (near equator), except Ooty (~8000 ft) none become too cold during winter. As all are surrounded by dense forests of Nilgiri mountains, they remain cool during summer. Except peak monsoon, any time is good time to visit them, including Kodaikanal. Immediately post-monsoon is perhaps best time to see numerous waterfalls. In November itself, most of the waterfalls near Kodaikanal had become almost dry. As the winter had ... read more

I could not resist joining a Holi Festival trip after I saw an inviting brochure of cheerful face covered in colored powder. It’s on my bucket list. Arrived at Delhi airport along with other participants, we were picked up by our tour leader, Ranar. During dinner that evening, we were briefed about the trip, which would take place at Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh district, a city where Lord Khrisna grew up during his childhood. As majority of the people were Hindu, it will be a three night and four-day vegan diet. The next morning, ten of us left for Vrindavan, a three-hour drive from Delhi. Once arrived, we reminded of the danger of the monkeys which had the habit of snatching loose items before we alighted the bus. There were at least 14,000 monkeys live in this ... read more