Page 5 of deb ang Travel Blog Posts


Asia » India » West Bengal » Darjeeling May 11th 2011

Our train was due to arrive at NJP station at 1.30pm. So in true Indian style it rolled into the station at 7:40pm. We had hoped to make it up to Darjeeling that evening but it was too late so we picked a hotel from our guidebook and headed for the exit. Along the way we met a Scottish girl, Sonya, who was the only other non-Indian we had seen since the previous night! Turned out she actually lives and works in India and was travelling with her Indian friend to a wedding. They had a 4x4 booked to pick them up and offered us a free lift to our hotel, which was completely out of their way as they had to go back to the train station to pick up some more people! After our ... read more
View from our Balcony
Lady at Station
Darjeeling Train Station

Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Varanasi May 5th 2011

Kat our new friend from Agra also decided to leave for Varanasi on the same day as well did. Unlike other train stations Khajuraho was pretty quiet and empty. We were happy that we were not being bothered by the locals. However that was soon to change as always we had the “where are you from”, “where are you going?” set of questions. If you are backpacking around India it is imperative that you take this sort of thing in good nature and joke about it. Angelo tries to wind up the locals and tells them he was one of the people who “created” Facebook. We hopped on and got going. The train ride was uncomfortable and our compartment was empty. Angelo sweet talked the ticket inspector to let us sleep on the lower bunks. Upon ... read more
Ang contemplating
Sunrise over the Ganges
People bathing in the Ganges

Asia » India » Madhya Pradesh » Khajuraho April 29th 2011

Before we left Agra, we were introduced to another traveller called Kat who was a journalist from Poland. She was catching the same train as us so we shared a tuk-tuk to the station. The train journey to Khajuraho was very uncomfortable on AC3. Angelo as usual wozzed out of sleeping on the top bunk as he thought he might roll of the bunk!! On arriving to Khajuraho we decided to stay in Hotel Surya and we shared a tuk-tuk with Kat. On arrival we noticed that this area was not very densely populated as other places in India and also did not look as polluted! This was a great sign! The hotel was reasonably priced, we haggled our room down to Rs 550 (Debbie had a little moan, as she felt she did not haggle ... read more
hmmm. I say no more!
Another one of the western temples
Nice carving!!

Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Agra April 25th 2011

We arrived in Agra still feeling a bit tired and we took a tuk-tuk to our hotel. One thing you must be prepared in India for is persistent and rather irritating tuk-tuk drivers. The guy who picked us up was constantly asking us if we wanted to see the Taj Mahal and Agra fort tomorrow - “no , I just want you to take us to the hotel”. He still persisted and as he dropped us off he followed us to the hotel to attempt to try find our room number, however the hotel manager clearly told him where to go and he disappeared. We ordered some food to be sent to our room, veg soup for deb and scrambled egg for Ang. Deb got half way through her soup before noticing the mosquito floating in ... read more
at the post office
West Gate - Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal

Asia » India » Rajasthan » Jaipur April 24th 2011

The sleeper train from Delhi to Jaipur was ok, nowhere near as bad as expected and generally pretty uneventful. When we arrived at Jaipur we were glad to see our driver waiting for us outside the station, mainly as we were trying to shake off a persistent rickshaw driver who jumped on us as soon as we stepped off the train. It was late when we arrived at Vinayak Guesthouse but we received a warm welcome and were shown to our room. The hostel is recommended in our lonely planet book but describes the rooms as drap. We found the exact opposite. Our room was big and decorated in bright blue and green with Indian paintings on the walls and colourful, mirrored fabrics hanging from the walls. The corridors were much the same. We did peek ... read more
Ang being leo
Debbie being cancer
Textiles factory

Asia » India » National Capital Territory » New Delhi April 19th 2011

So we arrive at Delhi almost two hours later than scheduled. We had booked a hostel from Goa and arranged for someone to pick us up from the station. He didn’t seem too pleased about the late train but oh well! Smyle Inn, where we had booked to stay for 6 nights, is down an alley off the main bazar in Paharganj. Its quite nice to be staying near the bustling market after 6 days of laziness in Goa. The first thing we noticed about Delhi was that the traffic is 10x worse than in Mumbai! Once we had checked in we enquired about food and the young guy at reception passed us a Domino’s Pizza menu… Yes please! We couldn’t face another curry after almost 2 weeks of eating Indian food every day so ordered ... read more
Jama Masjid
Debbie in her gown
Ang in his skirt

Asia » India April 14th 2011

We were dreading the 30 hour train ride. A few days before we left vino ( one of the boys at D'costa) was telling us about the train he catches to Delhi from Goa which is 52 hours long. At this point we started panicking. After looking at our ticket we relaxed and realised that we were going on a "faster" train. So on Monday we took the bus from Palolem back to Margao and got a taxi to an area with lots of hotels. We checked out a few rooms in different hotels before settling on one for Rs650 (haggled from 735) which was fairly decent and the guys on reception were really friendly. We had our first hot shower since arriving in India that night! As with Mumbai we turned up early as India ... read more
Bunk beds on train
Platform to the left
Platform to the right

Asia » India » Goa » Palolem April 11th 2011

We arrived at Mumbai CST about 2 hours before our train was due to depart – well we didn’t want to miss it now did we! Actually it was lucky we did as we had to find out which platform our train would arrive and where abouts on the platform to stand to board our coach. After seeking help from a very kind Indian man who was getting on the same train we managed to find the right place! Our beds were right at the end of the coach, so we were in for a bumpy ride! Once we had boarded the train we realised that our e-ticket had no ETA on, and they do not announce the stations on Indian trains as that would make things far too easy for their customers! Debbie seemed to ... read more
Our beach hut
Hello to the queen
The huts

Asia » India » Maharashtra » Mumbai April 4th 2011

Friday (day 1.) Well here we are, finally landed in Mumbai for the start of our big adventure! The flight felt quite short however as usual at immigration/customs the officer was confused by Angelo and kept asking him questions before finally letting him through. After collecting our baggage we booked a pre-paid taxi in the airport (which I recommend, as this prevents some of the locals ripping you off) and we got into it. Took around 2 hours to get to the hotel, half of this time was spent by our taxi driver trying to find out where our hotel was! One local got in and tried telling us our hotel had closed and that we should go to another, despite the fact we had showed him our booking confirmation! Mumbai traffic is crazy and when ... read more
Chowpatty Beach
Chowpatty Beach
Mumbai Horizon

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Northamptonshire March 30th 2011

Well 1 more day to go and we'll be off! Can't believe we're actually doing it! Also cant believe this is everything we own for the next 6 months! i guess we will see you all in September! Deb & Ang... read more




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