We are in Chennai now, arrived here from Goa by flight on Friday night. We haven't done too much here, just relaxed and spent time with friends here. Went to a bookstore, took an hour drive to the beach for a hash run and along the way there were shacks to replace the houses that were destroyed by the tsunami. After the run caught up with a friend at her work party, had a small dance to Tamil music which was a first for us. Very interesting dances these south indians come up with. We also went to Pondy Bazaar for the last of our shopping. We fly home at 2.30am tonight/tomorrow morning. We are very sad to be leaving, we have had an awesome time here. Below are a few things to recap, a bit hard to remember everything so means we can leave some stories for when we get back :) Enjoy!
Highlights:
Shopping and eating in Mumbai, seeing the Gateway of India and staying next to Big B, Amitabh Bachan.
5 Star Thali in Ahmedabad, Gujurat.
Sunset and watching Octopussy in Udaipur, Rajasthan.
Monkey Temple in Jaipur, Rajasthan.
Camel Safari in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.
Nek Chand gardens in Chandigarh, Punjab.
Golden Temple, Amritsar, Punjab.
Sunrise in McLeod Ganj and being near the Dalai Lama, Himichal Pradesh.
Bargaining in the Palika Bazaar and the India Gate in Delhi.
Sunrise Boat ride in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.
Luxury Hotel and dinner in Delhi again.
Being with family and seeing a monster mega-mall in Faridabad.
Taj Mahal in Agra (dur)
Backwaters in Kochin, Kerala.
Goa in general. Jet Skiing, Parasailing, eating beachside, the sunsets, Anjuna Markets and being with Rita and Yasmine.
Relaxing in Chennai.
Bloopers:
Jaisalmer, 18 Nov
A bird shat on Ameets hair, face, shirt and glasses while we were getting in to our jeep for the Camel Safari.
Jaipur, 20 Nov
Taking a cycle-rickshaw for the first (and last) time and getting a driver with a bung leg so it took one hour to get somewhere that takes 10 minutes by auto rickshaw!! We felt so sad for the poor fella who was sweating profusely by the time we arrived.
Delhi, 4 Dec
Feeling good for bargaining from 300 rupees down to 230 to get to Uncles house and when we arrive being informed that it should have only cost 60 rupees...
Meeting a Pakistani man on the road who asks if I'm from England, with his english being really bad I just nodded rather than trying to get him to understand New Zealand, he then asked me how I felt when Princess Diana died....... I didn't answer.
Varanasi, 7 Dec
At the Puja on the Ghats a skinny, pathetic holy man (beggar really) came to Ameet and with the strangest and weakest voice said "Om Namay Shiva" (praising Lord Shiva) with his hand out for some money. We have a video that you all have to see when we are back!
Shimla, 9 Dec
We are walking to find our hotel at 6 in the morning, after walking round in circles to find it Rachel steps in some fresh cow shit and was not impressed. Took about a week to get it off her shoe!
So there are obviously more highlights of our trip than there were bloopers, the trip was a wonderful one, a once in a million experience and we couldnt have learnt about India better than we did over these last 2 months. We have grown a lot and bought so many wonderful things and can't wait to share them all with you once we are back in NZ. Thanks for joining us along the way and sharing our excitement with us. We will be having plenty more wonderful experiences in our next stop, KL Malaysia which we will also blog about so stay tuned for that.
Lots of love
Ameet and Rachel
xxx
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