At last! Let the good times roll. We have finally made it to the beaches of Southern India. We’re in the state of Goa now, formerly a Portuguese colony. Apparently the Portuguese were a bit heavier handed than the British when it came to “introducing” the locals to Christianity. After some widespread torture and murder, the locals agreed to be Christians, and apparently a lot of them still are. The result? Beer! Available everywhere at a good price. Not the…
After Udaipur, we headed out to Bundi, we were hoping it would be our last stop in Rajasthan before heading down to Goa. Per the guidebook, Bundi was supposed to be a mellow, tranquil town to hang out in for a couple of days and to recoup. Quite frankly, we had been recouping from the horrors of the big cities since Jaisalmer so by now we were pretty relaxed …. But that’s ok – one can never be relaxed enough,…
After leaving Jaipur we were pretty weary of big cities and couldn’t wait to get to some small towns. Jaisalmer and Pushkar fit the bill perfectly. Jaisalmer is a desert town built around an 850 year old sandstone fort, which does look like an enormous golden-hued sandcastle perched on a hilltop. In its entire history the fort was only captured twice, the first time after a siege lasting twelve years. When the inhabitants finally decided they could no longer live…
We have been pretty budget conscious since we started travelling so we were thrilled to be gifted a night of luxury in a desert camp by Kath (thanks sis!). We were picked up by our jeep at 2pm from Jaisalmer and headed out to the Damodra Desert Camp. On our way out our driver stopped to show us a natural spring where. in the days pre-running water, the ladies would come from miles around to fill their containers to bring…
I have to admit it, sitting in Jaipur waiting for our night train to Jaisalmer, I had all but lost hope in India. After the constant assault on the senses, the wallet and my lungs I was worn out. Plus it was going to be my birthday (29 again) and I just couldn’t bear to spend it being hassled. Well, one of the Hindi gods must have listened, let’s say it was Ganesha, the elephant God, remover of all…
In the words of our friend Katy, India can be…challenging. Truer words were never spoken. It is not a gentle place. It bashes your senses at every turn. When you step out of your hotel the first sense assaulted is your hearing. The roads are chock full of motorcycles, scooters, cars, rickshaws, and tuk tuks all swerving and weaving to get ahead of each other, each one blaring its horn at all times, the louder the better. Next your sight,…
Last night was THE night we had been looking forward to. Our first train ride in India and we were getting out of Delhi (bonus!), we had even splurged and purchased 1st class sleeper train and we were looking forward to this adventure. Unfortunately Kevin wasn’t feeling well and we had to check out of our hotel by 5pm so we decided to head over to the station early (at 6pm) to people watch and wait for our train to…
So…. We have arrived in India. It was a bit of a shock, landing in a giant cloud of smog. It is literally so thick that you can taste it – it makes me feel very bad for Mother Earth. I have never seen anything like it – we arrived at midnight and when you look around it looks like you are in a dense fog but it’s not fog…. indescribable and utterly horrifying really. After customs we noticed large…