Mumbai under siege...

just realised that this blog will come first, how and ever.. i was woken on the night of the 26th by my father at 3am worried that we were in mumbai in colaba. i as confused as we hadnt looked at the news all evening so were none the wiser about the terror attacks going on. as im sure everyone will have seen the news by now i neednt get into it but my parents wanted me home asap! wally and i were really worried about the domestic airport as there were some reports that it had been hit.. but these were quashed by the airport staff and we were safely boarding our flight some hour later than scheduled. the kingfisher staff were really nice and tried to keep everyone calm. when we arrived in mumbai we could see that there was still a major ooperatoin underway so we had to decided where to stay out of the danger. we chose near the airport and were approached by an english guy in the airport asking if he could hang with us as he was supposed to go to colaba to see a friend but obviously couldnt now. his name is Rob and was an actor so himself and wally had a lot in common, it was wierd actually how alike they are! we headed to some hotel that the airport reservaton people made us see, it was gross so we headed to the place we wanted which was lovely, a little expensive but worth it but then the ladei or should i say bitch at reception said that they were,t taking in walk ins because of the problems so we were stumped again. but she pointed usin the direction of a nearby hotel and we ended up staying there, it was a little kitchy but wa s what we needed. after heading out on a booze expedition we holed up in the hotel for the night intermiddely watching the news and commenting on how shit the indian news was.i was under extreme pressure byt the parents and family to come home and didnt know what to do, eventually in the morning i decided to stick with my original plan and head to goa.. where i am now. its really quiet here, exactly what i needed after the stress of being in the danger zone! in in anjuna at the mo where a massive market happens every wed, im going to stay here til then i think, its chlled but i havent met any other travellers yet, althought the mossies have been great and have greeted me with open mouths, the bastards!

Jodhpur :( Udaipur :)

i suppose everyone would like to hear about the excitment in Mumbai but first i want to blog about Jodphur and Udaipur. so wally an i took the train late in the night from jaisalmer into Jodhpur and arrive super early, at 5.20am!so we jumped into an over priced rickshaw too exhausted to care and he brought us close to our guesthouse that lonel planet had recommended. it was called the cosy guesthouse, it was anything but. first off it was up this tiny winding street that was so uphill im surprised i made it, wally got the driver to carry her bags (damn) but he r one was hugely heavy so i ddint mind. when we arrived we woke the slumbering people in the lobby area of the haveli and were shown a rom that was literally a small double bed with no where to walk around it, a tiny cabinet was in the wall and the walls were draped in fabric making the room seem smaller, oh and the sound of some bloke vomiting was a plus... then he told us that this room was actually 50 rupees more expensive that we were intially told.we though we would argue this out later but it was a stand off (then we conceeded cos it was only 6 euros for the room.. 3 each.. nothing!) so we passed out for a while and when we woke we headed to the roof top restaurant for some food.. jeeez was the service a shambles, orders were taken on napkins, or not at all and the food was barely passable, oh and as usual ice cold! this was not the cosy guesthouse experice that we were looking for, but the price was really good so we thought that we would spend the day sight seein and not come back till we were good and tired and then the room size would be of no importance. so we headed to the tourist info centre, that ofcourse was closed being a sunday :( we got a rickshaw driver to bring around for the day. whilst we were headin around we refused to look at his commission shops, spending our time at the sights instead. then in the evening we conceeded but bought nothing and made him drop us at the massive market in the old town. it was mental and brightened our spirits about the town, so much so that we headed out of the way to dinner to On the Rocks.. cool place, great food.. and we put away a bottle of wine between us! added bonus of the night was the enormous wedding gong on next door, we heard wails of a kid goat and tried not to think why.... then we had quite the time trying to get someone to bring us home.. but then he won me over when he let me driver the auto rickshaw for part of the way!!! remember that i was a little pissed... so he let me steer but took most of the control himse;f!the next day we headed to get a bus to udaipur deciding not to spend much time in jodhpu, it didnt have a great vibe, then the drama with the bus tickets started, first there was a bus at 2pm but when we paid it was at 1pm and already it was 12.2 , then the bus didnt leave from the ticket office but another ticket office and then not from there but a rickshaw brought us to it!! and then the rude dude form the bus tried to get us to put our bags in the back fo the bus! yeah right .. easier to stael, so wwe took them on board and started the worst bus journey of my life. i have a video of it... at some points we leaped 2 feet off the chair! it took 7 hours, mainly cos of the mountains and the fact that we kept stopping in every tiny town to cram more people in! but finally we were there in udaipur, some rickshaw overcharged us to get to our hotel and we arrived expecting the worst....

.. and were pleasantly surprised! our room was delicious, ensuite, flatscreen tv, 2 single 4 poster beds, the place had a pool and restaurant. oh we were delighted! so we decided to stay in udaipur for the 3 days and not do much! the bond movie octopussy was shot in the palace on the lake here and we were intending to go and eat there but soon realised that we had neither the money or the proper attire to fit in :( no worries we ate on the banks of the filthy lake in a lovely restaurant called ambrai and watched the sun set over the lake and the city came alive with european lighting! now the restaurant was prob lovely cos of the wine.... but how and ever it was a sucessful evening. the next day after lounging by the pool we headed to get pampered...oh so we thought. we went to the 5 star hilton hotel for some waxing, threading, manicures etc... they butchered my hands, and missed spots on my legs so in certain lights i look right wierd! wally had the same unimpressive experience, but she took the time to teach the waxist some new tricks.. oh yeah shouldve known we were in for something wierd when she spread the wax on my legs with a butter knife! but we didnt let it mar our day as we wandered slightly sticky from residue wax about the city. we had intended to go to mumbai on the 26th but thought that we would want more timein udaipur.. and im so happy we did!

Thank god i packed my sports bra

i survived the 12 hour train journey to jaisalmer! i took the bottom bunk in case of vomit emergency, although i realised that i was putting myself at risk for some groping and disturbance throughout the night! thank you julia for telling the story of how she was woken by a finger nail scraping the back of her leg as she slet on the train it really helped mnake me feel entirely uncomfortable! we got on the train at midnight and found our bunks easy enough, they were much smaller than they looked in the other train and we on the side which we though was the best option (the jury is still out on that front!) so wally took the top and i the bottom and we promptly passed out !! thank god for small mercies, i didnt puke throughout the journey and slept quite well considering! although some dude dide poke his head into my bunk at some godforsaken hour to just check me out (although if i had reacted he prob would have gone with the escuse that he was lost ..yeah right!@) so we arrived in jaisalmer, were promptly attacked by a tout and for 10 rupees let him take us to his hotle which was grotty and then to our own hotel.. hotel swastika! the guy in our hotel was laid back to the point of indifference, i think the write up in the lonely planet has done him a booming business so he no longer tries! although he didnt take it too badly when we didnt take his camel safari option. on recommendation of stef and steve from the tiger safari we headed to thar safari, the poor guy ther was up to his eye balls in wedding prep (he was to be married in 2 days!) so i think that was the start of our interesting camel safari experience. we were due to head out the next morning at 8.30am so we had the afternoon to wander jaisalmer etc. i loved that place! sure everyone tried to sell you something but it was a welcome relief from the stress of the capital city.it is small cosy, and the locals do try to engage you and are very friendly.. but ... what they dont do is service! getting food in jaisalmer was an extremly tough thing to do, mainly we waited 40 minutes for simple meals to appear and when they did come they were ice cold! its no wonder people here are forever eating of the street stalls.. atleast the food arrives hot (if toxic and tummy destroying) but i think all round wally and i loved jaisalmer especially since its wedding season in india right now and the small town went mental for one weding we witnessed just as we were leaving, fireworks, thje groom terrified on an adorned horse, loud pumping music,dancing.. and this was jut the procession to the wedding area!.... but wait..what about the camel safari???

so the next morning we headed off with our driver (who spoke really little or no english) to a few sights before meeting up with our faithful steeds. we went through the cenotaphs (given me some idea sfor how i would like to be remembered..) and then on to the jain temple (ladies who are menstrating are not allowed in... but how can they tell...) then it was off to meet rocket and simon the 2 camels who took us across the scrub desert.. poor rocket was my man and true to form was shooting poop rockets at simon and wally for most of the journey! so we headed out and immediatley i realised that the little minutes i spent on a camel in dubai had NOT prepared me for this! it was the wierdest gait ever but just as i was getting into it we stopped to wate rthe camels and then headede into the shade of a nearby tree for lunch.. all prepared infront of us by our guie, chapati and curry (what i was to live on for the next few days!) and then about 3 hours later (they dont do things fast in the desert!) we headed off to the desert. at this point my arse was SORE and i was happy for the trotting to start and then we were at our destination an hour later... but where was this destination??? well our guide dumped us at his brothers wife's place... shack.. in the middle of the scrub desert whlst he headed to town for some "camel food" yeah right.. he left us there with his family who hadnt great english for 4 hours! well after sundown! there were 2 girls and this other woman with a baby adn all hese boys, not to mention the goats and the baby goats and the cows and other camels,... it was like the desert version of animal farm! we headed into the dunes for the sunset which was rosemantic (but with me and cuz not so much) we battle dung beatles and fell about thge place trying to take artistic shots.. mainly trying to whittle away the hours until we could head to bed! so we headed back in the hear dark to the family shack place where we were plyed with more chai (i hate the stuff now) and amusaed by the baby goats (the kids) and generally sat silently staring at the star studded sky getting morte and more annoyed that we were stranded. when he finally returned he ignored us for a while and then about 8.30 fed us (more of the same from lunch) and finally set about heading into another dune to prepare our beds for the night. we opted for 2 campbed things (the dung beatles are HIUGE so i didnt want to be on the sand) and he left us be. i would love to say we stayed up all night chatting and seeing shooting stars, i saw one and then passed out, was wonken a couple of times what with the freezen temperatures and everything! but then we awoke to the dawn breaking over the sand dune and soon we were off to the desert again and then for another drawn out lunch and finally home that afternoon... dont know if my ass will ever be the same! i did love rocket and poor wally got landed with the slowest of the bunch simon. i just feel that if the guy frm thar had warned us about the amount of time we were to spend with the family i dont know if we would have gone./.. that and it was just us, no one else, i wanted to meet some other travellers but it ws not to be.

that night we returned we made it to our train for jodhpur (where this blog is coming frm) that trin arrived in on time!! remarkable! and as for the story of jodhpur.. at the moment im heading for the bus to udaipur so i'll have to share another time..but let me say this.. im happy to be out of here!

xx

internet difficulties

hey everyone! had a huge blgo written about my time looknig for tigers in Ranthambore park at 4.30 in the am but then Indian internet decided to go on the blink and it was all lost :( basically we set off 2 hours late from Agra to Sawai Madhpur and made it to the tiger reserve hotel, we somehow made it through the 4 hour train ride in second class with all the indian men staring at us and some street kids trying to kiss my feet at the station. then ofcourse there was the usual delay when some cows found their way onto the tracks and since that beast is sacred here they had to shoo him off gently, and this was time comsuming! but we made it to our hotel and the manger told us that the only way to get a jeep safari seat this late (there also are buses but they are crowded and nosier) was to head for the forestry office at 4.30am still dark and queue for the place to open at 5.30.... so we did and bumped into some other english speakers who had been queueing from about 3am! after some pointy elbowed indians trying to shove us out of the way our hotel manager came to the rescue and got us to the top of the queue and after some shouting we got our seats on the jeep! one of the only ones going apparently. so we had about half and hour to shovel in some food and away we went with stef and steve and another couple kelly and adam. we didnt see any tigers though :( but alot of deer and some owls and cute monkeys (anyone who has monkeys prob saw the photos already) so after the safari we were well knackerd, didnt get back until 10.30! and we had until 1pm to wait for the next train. so we headed to the station and tried to avoid the touts and made it (again late train) this time we headed for Kota.. and then from there on a Bus to Bundi... the bus toko only 45 minutes but after the uncomfortable train ride it felt like hours.. and even in the bus station they tried to get us on the wrong bus! what is it with indians and their lying?! we even had to pay for an extra seat on the bus becuse of our rucksacks that were taking up loads of room... this i didnt mind because the alternative option was to sling the bags on the roof and smoehow secure them!! for an extra 20cents it wasnt worth the hassle! so we made it to Bundi this idilyic little mountain town with a castle in the side of the mountain and plenty of havelis and friendly kids who just want you to take their pic and dont want any money for it! got all my laundary done for about a euro adn walked the town enjoying counting the amount of times we were greeted.. think hello is the most over used word in teh town! we spent out 2 days in Bundi quite restfully, we werent interested in partying (thankfully as Bundi is a dry town) and even though there was a festival on wally and i found ourselves passed out by 9pm! clearly we needed the rest!

after Bundi we had intended to head to Pushkar for a camel fair but to our annoyance it had ended already so we passed by pushkar and headed straight to the capital of rajasthan.. Jaipur! this is where this blog is coming from. wally and i got a place at the pearl palace hotel and the room was so so so small that i can almost touch both walls! but we didnt care! we headed across all the sights yesterday and even let our driver take us into some high priced shops so he makes commission! wally bought somethings but i wasnt in teh mood. the sales guys pretend to be your best mate and they are awfully good at putting out the bait but when it comes to the reeling in they fail and loose me everytime!they get defensive when you want to bargain and make the situation really awkward.. to offset this feeling we headed into the bazaar.. this is where everthing is negoitable! i prefer the upfront swindling!picked up a few things.. including a pair of ali ba ba pants that ended up dying me blue from the hips to the ankles.. sigh . TII (this is india!)
the only down point so far was that down points seem to come in waves.. like waking up last night at 3am needed to vomit, think delhi belly is trying to take me over, but i resisted, with wally's help (thank you dear for your cool towling adn calm words as i shivered against the outdoor step and babbled nonsense!) the rest of the down points was tryng to send some packages home (that took 2 hours!!!how is that possible) and then trying to steer our new rickshaw-wallah away from anyother commission laden shops, add that to the constant battle not to throw up and it hasnt been the best day...
oh and tonight?? well we head for Jaisalemer.. on a 12 hour train
may god have mercy

Stressed in Agra

i suppose nobody thought that i would be writing again on this thing so quickly but ... have arrived in agra and spent the day here. it has not been the best experience so far. wally and i arrived bright and early to the train station this morning in New Delhi at 5.30. our train was leavin at 6.15am so we had time to chill out and try to wake up properly. the train arrived early and as we were making our way to it some guy asked me for my ticket. ..which i stupidly gave to him thinking him an official.. well this is where the drama started. for one thing he said that we didnt have a seat on the train! we apparently were waitlisted, so we were ushered off to the waitlist board to check our status, i couldnt fathom the board what with the stress abnd everything so he "read" it for me and wally and stated that we were not on the train... so he told us to head upstairs to the tourist office to fix it and to do it fast cos the train wouldnt wait. i dropped my bag and was about to legg it when he told us that the both of us had to go together.. curiuos, espcially as the office didnt open til 8am, luckily for us (suspiciously) a guy stepped out of the office across from the hall and took charge, we were totally freaked out by this point. so he checked the ticket made soime calls and then said for 1500 rupees we could get on the train but we had to head across the street to the other office (it isnt there by the way) at this point wally lost her temper, yelled him and we both legged it to the train and thought to hell with it... the worst they can do is kick us off!so we made our way to coach 6 and there were people in our seats or so we thought, so we quickly sat in near seats and started to pray, these germans arrived and almost confirmed our worst fears. we told them what had happened and the nice lady told us that we were in the wrng carriage! so i crept along to the other carriage and there were our seats waiting for us and looking lonely ;) the dudes in the station were total scam artists! couldnt believe we almost missed our train. the letters on our ticket meant window seat and not waitlist! felt like a right retard.. but a smug retard cos i beat the tout!

so we got to agra and thought that the day could only get better and it did. we managed to get this amazing taxi guy to bring us to the first hotel mentioned in my book. they didnt have rooms but we had brekkie there with views of the taj and crossed our fingers that something would turn up. it did and he offered us a room for 900 rupees which in real money is like 15 yo yos for the room (7.50 each) but i felt this was a bit steep so i pegged it down the road to the shanti lodge and he had a room for 400 (6.60 for the rooom!) and took it. so we settled in and i called the helpful taxi dude and organised for him to take us to the ghost town nearby, it is the ruined capital city of india when the mougals were in charge. we met 2 lovely travellers when i was organising it and they came with, Gudu was the taxi and the entire trip (hour and a half out to the site and then he waited and then took us back, to the red fort and the taj) cost us onlu 250 rupees each! nothing! he even organised us a guide who was very helpful (if facebook ever fixes the photo thing thenyou will see what im talking about) after that wal and i decided to head straight for the taj, good thing too cos the queues were awful, the place closed earlier than the book said and ayou couldnt take in your bag! but at least i saw one of the wonders of the world!!

heading out tonight to the poshest place here and will dress up, have a rare glass of wine and try to enjoy it!
xx

Visa shenanigans & delhi belly in the middle east

so folks a lot has happened since the last time that i blogged. my god... where to begin, right so the last time i blogged i was safe in my mutrah hotel in oman, getting really excited about heading to india and after surviving staying at am omani's house.. well.... so i got a call from wallis late on the tuesday night, her in tears, saying that she was not going to india!! WTF!! well it turns out that sasha had not informed us correctly of our visa requirements, Irish travellers DO need a visa before entry is granted into the country. i had checked this out before and read somewhere that you could get a visa on entry (havent been able to locate the site again funnily enough) so the stress began, i talkd to the kind people at my hotel and they contacted the embassy but it was shut or the day. so i printed the form filled it and waited for morning. headed to the picture place the next morning and then made my way out to the embassy and crossed my fingers... i made a beeline for the only other white person in the place when i had my ticket and he told me he could get his papers for india in a day!! result?? but.. talked to the guy in an office and turns out cos im not a resident of oman i would have to wait a week for the papers to come through! i cried when i heard this and the man with the heart of steel didnt even react! so i stumbled out of the embassy and ran into the white man again who gave me a lift back to my hotel cos he felt so bad for me. so i had a choice.... stay in oman for 3 more days (someone at the hotel could pull some strings to make it happen faster) and spend 200 more on a hotel or head back to bahrain like i was going to adn stay with someone whilst i worked out the visa issues. i went with the cheaper option and ended up back in bahrain where the lovely shane stapleton and family took me in for the week. i am forever in their debt and something pretty from india is headed their way as a thank you.

shane was quite the host whilst i was in the kingdom for the week. but something about their house and he comfort of the compound meant that i was quite the hermit for most of my time! although my second night did happen to coincide with halloween... (cue hilarious drunken holiday
story) wll i hadnt bargained for a halloween party now had i, i was supposed to be in mumbai with wally. but i rolled with it and dressed up as something suitably tasteless.. a prenant chav - with a bloody knife in my belly!! the pics will be up in a while when i remember to bring my cable to the internet cafe!i certainly got a few wierd looks and it was a great chance to meet up with people who thought they had seen the last of me earlier in the month. a cute boy even took my number (but with the belly that seemed suspect!) revisted traders during the week for yummy coctails and headed to a club opening just befoire i left! so on the wednesday under the influence of shane's biast few of indian processes i headed into the embassy to hadn in my passport to speed up the process and make sure they hadnt forgotten me.. they took it and told me to be back the next day in the after noon. so on the thursday with some trepidation i headed in a cab to the embassy area, i needed some cash so the taxi driver took me to a drive thru atm.. and it promptly swallowed my card! my one and only card in the middle east!!! luckily this atm was on he side of a HSBC bank so i ran inside and left my cabbi waiting adn told them my sorry story. well they werent going to give me my card but i through a bitch fit about it not being my fault and i was leaving the country onward and needed my money and the send a technition to check it out and got my card for me... but then they wouldnt give me the blasted thing and had to take my details and check if it was a "red card" fraud or something stupid like that, and then she asked me for my id, which i didnt have cos i was picking it up from the india embassy .. and since the robbery of vegas i dont have a drivers licence... uh oh.. but some pleasding and she gave it to me telling me all the time how many laws and rules she was breaking. then to my surprise 4 other people arrived who had their cards swallowed by the same machine... i quietly backed away when she said that they would have to wait 3 days to get their cards back!!! so onward to the embassy with my fingers crossed that karma wasnt going to do anything further to me.. and to my delight i picked up the passport with visa intact, no problem!!!

the next morning i took a cab to the airport simply enough and made it through all the security without a problem, i was tying to take out money when the problems started agin. the card wouldnt work. i was really scared that the other machine had damaged it or i was over limit. so i spent a long time on the phone to AIB (not the best when you are travelling) and it turned out that a security block had been placed on my card (just for the craic) took that off, got some cash, changed it to rupees and headed for india.. phew!

arrived in mumbai and took an air conditioned taxi into colaba. none of my phones were working (all barred?!) so i couldnt tell wally i had arrived.. uh oh.. so i headed for the place i thyough we had agreed to stay at only o change direction when she finally got through to me. the ride took abouit 2 hours the traffic is awful and it was so hot! mumbai is full of poverty, its difficult to see. the kids on the street, filthy, naked adn hungry lookng. but unfortunatley very quickly ou become accustomed to it.i got my annoyingly lost cabbie to take me to the taj mahal hoteladn i met wallynearby! i have never been so happy to see a family member. this past 5 weeks solo have been a little tough, not gong to lie. we spent our first night at bentlys (cheap and cheerful) adn headed out for some overpriced (and under alcoholic) drinks and dinner. we met simon there (wally in the country for one day finds a fellow traveller!) he had a seriously gay vibe but at the same time was coming on to the walster. he bored me! so i faked being tired and we headed to bed! the next day we headed out to elephanta island to see the caves, the monkies and travel the 120 steps. an hour ferry took us there adn people didnt really stare at us too much. we met a couple of belgium travellers at the caves and had lunch with them. in the evening we headed around a walking tour of mumbai and went to a bollywood type movie in hindi called Fashion! it was a 4 hour EPIC thing, now i feel i speak hindi! after the movie we had a late night meal in cafe leopolds of chicken byriani and butter chicken adn sloped off to bed early. we were up at the craic of night (5am) to get to the airport for our flight to delhi. the cabbie tried (and failed to rip us off) adn instead tried his luck with the pair of us. funnily enough we were married!! i created quite the back stories for us, i was a teacher and maried to paul with 2 kids and wally a photographer with a husband she didnt name, and no kids i dont think! so we got to the airport and got checked in. there was a slight problem at security when they thopught my change purse might be a bomb but we got on the plane and got safely to delhi.... so in delhi now and managed to get this kick ass accomodation with this guesthouse. this family put you up adn take care of your everywhim, including onward train details and a hidden delhi tour. we took the tour this morning at 6am, saw old delhi had curry for brekkie, were talked through hinduism, went to the laundary,saw some traditional homes adn drank from a coconut! that was only today.. tomo we head to the markets and on friday to agra to see the taj... from there its through rajasthan...

stay tuned xxx