Allepey to Kochi...................10th to 12th November Caught the public bus from Allepey to Kochi. Fast and Furious!!!! Arrived at Le Royale to discover that what we had booked was a magnificent mansion!! Talk about from the sublime to the ridiculous (or vice versa actually). It was a really beautiful house. There was a guard at the gate house, a cook and a houseboy to look after us and one other German couple, Regina and Martin. Our hosts Jose and Jenny were teaching at the University where they worked but met us later that afternoon. They were really friendly [View Full Entry]

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Kollam, Kerala ................3/4th November 2008 Took a morning train from Ernakulum Town (Kochi) to Kollam (proper name Quilon) which is mid/south of Kerala. It took a good hour to get off the island of Fort Kochi due to the heavy traffic but still arrived in plenty of time for the train. This had come down from Bangalore so there were lots of people who had slept in the bunks before we got on. They don't seem to clear away used linen so we had to do it ourselves in order to sit down! We had booked the Sea Bee hotel but [View Full Entry]

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Bundi to Kerala ............. 30th October Took a car from Bundi to Jaipur at 6.30pm so that we could catch the 12.50am to Delhi. We had heard that road travel at night was not for the faint hearted and so it proved. Not only did our driver have to contend with overtaking the many lorries on the road but also we had to run the gauntlet of teenagers letting off small sticks of TNT (otherwise known as Diwali fireworks) into our path as we passed through small towns and villages! Also, as we had been warned, many vehicles..... cars, lorries [View Full Entry]

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Chittorgarh, Bassi and Beyond 26th October 2008 25/10/08 Our last night at Udaipur was spent cooking with Shashi in her humble but spotlessly clean kitchen, just below the Sunrise Rooftop Restaurant at 18 Gangaur Ghat Rd (www.shashicookingclassesblogspot.com). Foolishly we had a snack at 4.00pm because you get (to try) to eat the food that you cook and there was a ton! We made masala chai, pakora, naan, chapati, parantha, sweet parantha, veg pilau, aloo gobi, veg curry, veg biriyani, paneer........ Needless to say we couldn't eat all that and ended [View Full Entry]

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Udaipur 21/10/2008 Have I mentioned.....? masala chai .... masala omelettes.... , banana pancakes........ , Indian eagles......., the stink of urine and open sewers,........ speed bumps in the road that are enough to break your axle as well as your back..... throat clearing and spitting........squirrels that look like little chipmonks......cow dung...... Having hired a taxi to get us to Ranakpur, we were then stranded as there was no town from which to get any sort of transport to our next destination, Udaipur. No worries, buses could be flagged down outside the h [View Full Entry]

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Ranakpur 20/10/008 With hindsight we probably spent a day too long in Jodhpur and by the end, the dirt and the incessant noise was getting us both down. Also once you had seen the major sights (in a couple of hours), there wasn't that much to do, so we were glad when our taxi arrived to take us on to Kumbhalgarh and Ranakpur. We started the journey on a major road then turned off onto what can only be described as a single track road across the plains and off towards the more mountainous Ranakpur Hills. The journey to Kumbhalgarh [View Full Entry]

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Jodhpur 16/10/2008 Took the 4.00pm train to Jodhpur which was on the platform when we arrived and left on time!!!! Sat next to a very nice Spanish couple from Majorca. They were travelling all over India in 3 weeks. From Nepal to Kerala! They were meant to go to Srinagarh but were advised against so they went to Kerala for 3 days instead! Leide had a sister who worked at the Spanish Embassy in Delhi and had booked it all for them. Again, by 5.00pm everyone was bedded down for a kip!!! This time we had pillows, [View Full Entry]

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Jaisalmer 13th to 16th October 2008 Caught the overnight sleeper from Bikaner to Jaisalmer. Once again delayed by 1 hour. This meant we didn't leave til 12.30am. The platform was full of people sitting on the floor waiting and the usual collection of helpful people and serial starers!! A nice lady brought her daughter over to us (obviously to practise her English) and later she came back with her older brother. They were doing a tour of the temples of Rajastan and came from Uttar Pradesh (or UP..... the Indians just love initialising everything!!). Ju [View Full Entry]

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Bikaner, Rajasthan 10th to 12th October 2008 Today we moved on to Bikaner which is probably the nearest we get to the Pakistan border 100k away. The desert to the north is now a restricted area. Met 'Henry' our fellow guest at the Vinayak Guest House at dinner tonight. He is from New York and is researching genetics at the Centre for Reseach on Camels which we are visiting tomorrow. Going to get an insider tour and see the camels coming home at 4.00pm! Jitu our host is really great and so helpful. He works at the camel place too!!! [View Full Entry]

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Jaipur 4/10/2008 The General's Retreat is certainly a haven of peace in the otherwise mad city of Jaipur. In reality Jaipur is rather a nice place in that it has an old walled city to the north. It was the only place we could think of where you could see baboons, elephants,camels, cows and pigs cleaning (and fouling) the streets. Away from the madness, traffic and noise of the old town there is a modern city trying to claw it's way into the 21st century. Shopping malls and banks and hotels are springing up everywhere. We even succumbed to the [View Full Entry]

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