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
Tuesday, 22 December 2009
Monday, 21 December 2009
Goa - MIND BLOWING!
Goa...... Absolutely amazing, relaxing, serene, surreal and utterly MIND BLOWING.
We spent one week here. We arrived by train on a Sunday morning. After one hour of driving through beautiful landscape we came to our Guest House for a much needed shower and then set off to explore Goa and grab some breakfast/lunch. We ate at Electric Cats. The place didn't have any relevance to cats anywhere but the menu was so good, seafood all around. We soon realised that was the best part about Goa, the food. We bummed around for the day, looked at some shops, walked on the beach then watched a beautiful sunset. Next day Rita, ameet's mum, and Yasmine, Rita's friends, joined us. We hid on their balcony to scare them as they arrived then spent the rest of the day stoning together, taking in the sights and sounds of this wonderful place. Another amazing sunset as we sat on the beach having the best food and some sheesha (hukka).
Next day we set off on a boat to Anjuna Markets. Its a market place, described by Lonely Planet as "a place where you must remember to bargain hard and take along equal amounts of patience and stamina, and that once you spend just a couple of hours here you'll never want to see a mirrored bedspread, peacock feather fan or floaty Indian dress again in your life" And it was just that. The market place was so massive that it starts to become generic and overwhelming after a while and the shopkeepers yelling at you to buy their goods tires you down faster than you can imagine. The hot sun doesn't help either. It was a great experience though. The beggars dancing on the beach also adds another touch of difference. My favourite though was a lady selling bags but was wearing one on her head to escape the sun, she looked so silly and just couldn't understand why all the tourists were laughing at her!! We ate beachside then headed back to offload all the heavy shopping and relax on the beach. We had the most relaxing afternoon and evening there, ate a sad looking lobster and some other seafood.
Next day Rita and Yasmine went to have a day of pampering. Facial, manicure, pedicure, hair done while Ameet and I went for a day of water sports. We had such a great time. First we held onto a round donut looking thing that was tied to the back of a boat and got thrown about the Arabian Sea (which had us gagging as the water is soo salty!) Then once our arms had a bit of strength back we sat into another donut looking thing again tied to the back of a boat and got our backsides having a workout. Then after a much needed swim in the beach, while btw wearing our life-jackets. We had to wear them for the activities and without thinking just kept them on and went swimming, soon after we realised how stupid we must have looked, esp since the water isn't that rough! We did some Jet Skiing which was so awesome!! We had a guide at the back, went by individually with him and got to drive it but with him guiding you. It went so fast I was screaming my head off making a fool of myself! Had two rounds on the water each then we took a boat further offshore to deep water and went Parasailing. Amazing!! So so fun!! You go really high and can see the land for miles. I'm sure this was another painful experience for Ameet since the harness isn't exactly comfortable. Afterwards we sat for a while on the beach stoning over all that happened then went and met the dolled up ladies for lunch. After lunch I had a South Indian Ayurvedic Massage. Really good massage! By now we are all relaxed and feeling good. We got all dressed up in our new clothes and headed to a french restaurant for dinner. The restaurant was sooo beautiful!! It had a nice passageway lined with delicate lights and palm tree's with which you enter through. Then it opens up into this beautiful beachy restaurant. The art works were so individual and really made the place. Each table had a different colour an art work theme. There was one Rajasthani corner, one Buddha corner, one Africa looking corner. One metropolis corner with a collage of cut out magazine covers with beautiful Indian models on front. After a really good meal us ladies spent half an hour posing near the toilets where the lights meant we were only silhouettes (will put some pics up) after we realised we looked like idiots we sat near a small fountain with a comfy bed that was made for sitting on and had desert. All the while drinking wine like there was no tomorrow! After dinner we went to Tito's, the most happening place in Goa!! It was a Thursday night and they had an awesome DJ playing bollywood mixed with trance and house which was soo good! Free entry and unlimited free drinks for ladies so we sent Ameet down the road to pick up some stuff and we headed inside for a dance and some more drinks. Once we were all hammered we dragged ourselves home and stayed up til 2am talking about the awesome week we'd had as the next day and complaining about tomorrow as we were leaving :( Next morning we had our last beachside breakfast, sat there in silence as we were all sad to leave and hungover from the night before. A few nights before we met a young boy on the beach, one thing about Goa, and the rest of India, is no matter where you are or what you are doing, the locals selling goods will come up to you and try to sell things to you, the beach as you can imagine was filled with these people since there were so many tourists there. The young boy was .. on the other side of the fence from his peers if you know what I mean, and it was the first Indian one we'd met, we were so intrigued that day we'd met him that as we all sat there stoning on our last day and he walked past, we called him over. Bought some of his goods and sent him off smiling. He was soo sweet. After this Rita and Yasmine headed off to the airport while we waited around and had lunch then flew later in the day. So sad we were to leave Goa. We flew to Mumbai and then Chennai, on Anise and Thyme.... We flew with Spice Jet airways and they name each aircraft a different spice. We had Oregano on our first flight with them (Varanasi - Delhi). Will update Chennai then our departure later today!
We spent one week here. We arrived by train on a Sunday morning. After one hour of driving through beautiful landscape we came to our Guest House for a much needed shower and then set off to explore Goa and grab some breakfast/lunch. We ate at Electric Cats. The place didn't have any relevance to cats anywhere but the menu was so good, seafood all around. We soon realised that was the best part about Goa, the food. We bummed around for the day, looked at some shops, walked on the beach then watched a beautiful sunset. Next day Rita, ameet's mum, and Yasmine, Rita's friends, joined us. We hid on their balcony to scare them as they arrived then spent the rest of the day stoning together, taking in the sights and sounds of this wonderful place. Another amazing sunset as we sat on the beach having the best food and some sheesha (hukka).
Next day we set off on a boat to Anjuna Markets. Its a market place, described by Lonely Planet as "a place where you must remember to bargain hard and take along equal amounts of patience and stamina, and that once you spend just a couple of hours here you'll never want to see a mirrored bedspread, peacock feather fan or floaty Indian dress again in your life" And it was just that. The market place was so massive that it starts to become generic and overwhelming after a while and the shopkeepers yelling at you to buy their goods tires you down faster than you can imagine. The hot sun doesn't help either. It was a great experience though. The beggars dancing on the beach also adds another touch of difference. My favourite though was a lady selling bags but was wearing one on her head to escape the sun, she looked so silly and just couldn't understand why all the tourists were laughing at her!! We ate beachside then headed back to offload all the heavy shopping and relax on the beach. We had the most relaxing afternoon and evening there, ate a sad looking lobster and some other seafood.
Next day Rita and Yasmine went to have a day of pampering. Facial, manicure, pedicure, hair done while Ameet and I went for a day of water sports. We had such a great time. First we held onto a round donut looking thing that was tied to the back of a boat and got thrown about the Arabian Sea (which had us gagging as the water is soo salty!) Then once our arms had a bit of strength back we sat into another donut looking thing again tied to the back of a boat and got our backsides having a workout. Then after a much needed swim in the beach, while btw wearing our life-jackets. We had to wear them for the activities and without thinking just kept them on and went swimming, soon after we realised how stupid we must have looked, esp since the water isn't that rough! We did some Jet Skiing which was so awesome!! We had a guide at the back, went by individually with him and got to drive it but with him guiding you. It went so fast I was screaming my head off making a fool of myself! Had two rounds on the water each then we took a boat further offshore to deep water and went Parasailing. Amazing!! So so fun!! You go really high and can see the land for miles. I'm sure this was another painful experience for Ameet since the harness isn't exactly comfortable. Afterwards we sat for a while on the beach stoning over all that happened then went and met the dolled up ladies for lunch. After lunch I had a South Indian Ayurvedic Massage. Really good massage! By now we are all relaxed and feeling good. We got all dressed up in our new clothes and headed to a french restaurant for dinner. The restaurant was sooo beautiful!! It had a nice passageway lined with delicate lights and palm tree's with which you enter through. Then it opens up into this beautiful beachy restaurant. The art works were so individual and really made the place. Each table had a different colour an art work theme. There was one Rajasthani corner, one Buddha corner, one Africa looking corner. One metropolis corner with a collage of cut out magazine covers with beautiful Indian models on front. After a really good meal us ladies spent half an hour posing near the toilets where the lights meant we were only silhouettes (will put some pics up) after we realised we looked like idiots we sat near a small fountain with a comfy bed that was made for sitting on and had desert. All the while drinking wine like there was no tomorrow! After dinner we went to Tito's, the most happening place in Goa!! It was a Thursday night and they had an awesome DJ playing bollywood mixed with trance and house which was soo good! Free entry and unlimited free drinks for ladies so we sent Ameet down the road to pick up some stuff and we headed inside for a dance and some more drinks. Once we were all hammered we dragged ourselves home and stayed up til 2am talking about the awesome week we'd had as the next day and complaining about tomorrow as we were leaving :( Next morning we had our last beachside breakfast, sat there in silence as we were all sad to leave and hungover from the night before. A few nights before we met a young boy on the beach, one thing about Goa, and the rest of India, is no matter where you are or what you are doing, the locals selling goods will come up to you and try to sell things to you, the beach as you can imagine was filled with these people since there were so many tourists there. The young boy was .. on the other side of the fence from his peers if you know what I mean, and it was the first Indian one we'd met, we were so intrigued that day we'd met him that as we all sat there stoning on our last day and he walked past, we called him over. Bought some of his goods and sent him off smiling. He was soo sweet. After this Rita and Yasmine headed off to the airport while we waited around and had lunch then flew later in the day. So sad we were to leave Goa. We flew to Mumbai and then Chennai, on Anise and Thyme.... We flew with Spice Jet airways and they name each aircraft a different spice. We had Oregano on our first flight with them (Varanasi - Delhi). Will update Chennai then our departure later today!
Sunday, 20 December 2009
Delhi and South India
We flew out of Varanasi and into Delhi once more, this time just for one night. we picked a pretty posh hotel and went out for a nice dinner, had a nice rest on the bed in the hotel as we've only been sleeping in budget accommodation for the past couple of weeks. so it was a wonder full change and a well needed to recharge. the next day we flew out of Delhi and into Kochi, the hub of Kerala. there we stayed with aunt jean and her family in their apartment.over the next couple of days we did a variety of things including a serene boat ride down the backwaters of kerala, and checking out the ancient and very fragrant spice markets of old Jewish/Portuguese kerala(which were very similar, in terms of architecture, to the buildings of old Melacca,back home in Malaysia). The boat ride was amazing, it was like we were going down the canals of Venice,except our canals had buffalo's and people bathing in it.and our gondola had plastic chairs and it was more like an old sampan held together by string that was made out of coconut husk(which we were also shown the method of production for by the way) and our gondolier was an oooollld man who wore a dhoti that kept falling down.but along the way we saw a variety of plants and animals and it was pretty relaxing and calming.it was nice to dip our feet in the cooling waters but i don't think the fish liked it very much.
we spent the next day at Fort Kochin just wandering thru the streets and admiring the gigantic Chinese fishing nets along the shoreline. there we were seduced into buying a freshly caught fish and some tiger prawns from the beachside and one of the shops cooked it for us.turned out to be one of the top meals we've had, and i think i can say the same for the kitty who joined us for the leftovers too.we also visited a church where vasco da gama used to be buried(until he went back to Italy), and we saw the spice markets where they sell spice and all sorts of rice in bulk.the smell there was really amazing.
that night we took a train,our last for our journeys, to Goa,paradise and home to the biggest and best parties this side of the world. the train journey was a long one ,15 hours to be exact but luckily we were well stocked up for the journey by aunt jean,she had made sure we had chicken briyani, chapatis and mutton as well as sprite and mazza and some fruits for dessert.the train was delayed a bit but we managed to get our seats and begin eating by about 9.30 pm. we slept for most of the journey,this train ride wasn't as interesting as any of the previous ones but the scenery was amazing outside,mostly field and people working in them,but the way of life ,the little things that the people do along the way,that was nice.for example we saw little kids playing cricket with makeshift bats and balls,as well as bottles for stumps and an area that was so small.but it was still as intense as a game between Pakistan and India on a big scale level.we saw them ploughing their fields with their Buffalo's and cooking food on a small wood fire outside their house.bathing by the canal side and making cow dung patties for fuel.collecting coconuts and other fruits,chasing chickens and bathing cows,occasionally there was a whiff of fresh seawater in the air as we were traveling parallel to the west coast of India towards our next destination by the beach,Goa.
we spent the next day at Fort Kochin just wandering thru the streets and admiring the gigantic Chinese fishing nets along the shoreline. there we were seduced into buying a freshly caught fish and some tiger prawns from the beachside and one of the shops cooked it for us.turned out to be one of the top meals we've had, and i think i can say the same for the kitty who joined us for the leftovers too.we also visited a church where vasco da gama used to be buried(until he went back to Italy), and we saw the spice markets where they sell spice and all sorts of rice in bulk.the smell there was really amazing.
that night we took a train,our last for our journeys, to Goa,paradise and home to the biggest and best parties this side of the world. the train journey was a long one ,15 hours to be exact but luckily we were well stocked up for the journey by aunt jean,she had made sure we had chicken briyani, chapatis and mutton as well as sprite and mazza and some fruits for dessert.the train was delayed a bit but we managed to get our seats and begin eating by about 9.30 pm. we slept for most of the journey,this train ride wasn't as interesting as any of the previous ones but the scenery was amazing outside,mostly field and people working in them,but the way of life ,the little things that the people do along the way,that was nice.for example we saw little kids playing cricket with makeshift bats and balls,as well as bottles for stumps and an area that was so small.but it was still as intense as a game between Pakistan and India on a big scale level.we saw them ploughing their fields with their Buffalo's and cooking food on a small wood fire outside their house.bathing by the canal side and making cow dung patties for fuel.collecting coconuts and other fruits,chasing chickens and bathing cows,occasionally there was a whiff of fresh seawater in the air as we were traveling parallel to the west coast of India towards our next destination by the beach,Goa.
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