Delhi

We are home from our trip to Nepal and India. I couldn't find a reliable internet cafe during the last week, so thought I would post a couple of last things to show you our last week. After Pushkar we travelled to Jaipur and Delhi.

In Delhi we visited the Red Fort
The Lotus Temple

and several other sites around the city such as the Presidents House and India gate. This photo shows where the road cycling events took place during the Commonwealth Games recently.

We stayed in Connaught Place which is an area built by the British during their occupancy of India and features long tree lined boulevardes and buildings with a distinctly British style. It also has lots of upmarket shops and eating places, although you don't have to venture far to see people living on the street in extremely poor conditions.

We are feeling very tired from our trip and glad to be home with family and friends. Krissy has gone on to South Africa to spend a month travelling with her boyfriend, Shaun; and Robyn , James and I had a long and somewhat eventful 2 day trip home (a little visit to the doctor in Hong Kong for James after being sick on the flight from Delhi to Bangkok - Delhi belly finally got him!). Being away from home for such a long time, and visiting countries such as India and Nepal, helps you to see things from a different perspective and appreciate even more all the things we sometimes take for granted. It's also wonderful to come home to family, friends and neighbours who welcome you back with love.

We have had an amazing trip, have seen some incredible places and met some wonderful people. We realise just how lucky we are to travel the world and visit these places and it's always a real privilege to be allowed into other people's lives, even if for just a short period of time. Thank you for following us on our blog along the way, and thanks for your comments and well wishes....it was great to hear from you all.

Until our next travels...........

Jaipur

In Jaipur we visited the Palace of the Wind, The Observatory which had amazingly accurate constructions built to determine the time, observe and pinpoint the planets, The City Palace and Amber Fort. Jaipur is a big city with a population of around 6 million and the Old City is incredibly busy.

The four of us at Palace of the Wind.
James taking a turkish bath at Amber Fort.....oops no water!
I was very brave and not only had my photo taken with this cobra but I actually touched it as well...!!!! and lived to tell the tale!

We rode elephants from the bottom of the hill up to Amber Fort....and it was great fun!

Amber Fort. The walls leading away from the fort reminded us very much of The Great Wall of China!

Pushkar

We had a little change of plan after spending hours bumping along rough Indian back roads washed out by big monsoon rains and are now in Pushkar. Pushkar is a very holy city and has quite strict rules regarding food and alcohol. There are many westerners here and the town is quite laid back and friendly.

Pushkar is in Rajasthan and is very colourful compared to other places we have been. The women's saris are extremely beautiful and the men wear all sorts of colourful turbans.
James thinks he might apply for this job???!!!

We are staying in a hotel -Our Pukka Place - owned by Fiona (an Australian woman living in Pushkar) and her husband Praveen. Fiona is well known in Australia for her textile work and nows runs tours of India and other countries. They have been very welcoming and it's lovely to have someone to talk with who knows the local community well and can explain many things to us about life in India. Fiona and Praveen also run cooking classes and last night we all went to their new house to do a class. First we visited the local market to buy veges and then drove out to their place. This is us enjoying our feast after much hard slogging over the stove!!!

James and I cooking up a storm!

We learnt how to make chappatis... we were meant to make perfect round ones so we were good cooks who could be married off. James made a heart shaped one.......ahhh how romantic!

Praveen recently bought Fiona a camel...yes she has been wanting one for a long time! Here's James, Robyn and Krissy making friends with Baba.

At the moment in India there are many weddings and they are loud and colourful affairs that go on for days. We have seen several going through the streets with loud brass bands and processions of women and sometimes men. Yesterday we saw one with lots of carts carrying the wedding gifts so everyone could see how wealthy the families are. Really interesting.

This one today was very beautiful.

We are enjoying staying in one place for a while and getting a feel for the place. Pushkar has some lovely shops so this morning we went out and did a bit of serious shopping.....now need to go and buy another bag I think!

Hope everyone is well at home. We are safe and resting up after some hectic travelling...taking it easy. Tomorrow Robyn and I are going to do a block printing workshop and tomorrow night Rob and Krissy are going on a camel safari.

Love to all at home...talk to you soon xxxx

Agra

We travelled from Varanasi to Agra on a night train - which was quite a good trip considering it was around 3 hours late arriving in Agra. Agra is not as hectic or noisy as Varanasi and of course there is one piece of architecture here we thought we might take a look at whilst staying here!
The Taj Mahal is just behind our hotel and without sounding too cliched is one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. It's amazing that this enormous building was built as a mausoleum for one person - although there are actually two people buried there - the Shah and his wife. The carvings and inlay work are amazingly intricate and it took 20,000 workers 22 years to build it.

Here we all are - happy travellers in front of the Taj!!

Yep - that's the Taj behind us!

Robyn and I in front of the Taj - all that art history study in high school has finally paid off!!!

From the beautiful gardens which surround the main buildings.

We also visited the Agra Fort a couple of days ago - beautiful palaces in very peaceful grounds. A welcome relief from the chaos just outside the gates.

One of the larger palaces.

James and his new abode!!! He's also ordered a gold Taj for his mausoleum!!!
Tomorrow we are heading off to Ranthambore National Park to find a tiger - or at least go looking for one. I'm not sure what the chances are but we will give it a shot. Than we head down to Udaipur which we have been told is quite peaceful.
We are all travelling well although we have had a couple of days of feeling a bit under the weather - our hectic schedule is probably catching up with us a little. I even had a visit to the doctor yesterday after having a reaction to the malaria medication we started taking a few days ago - and I have to say it was a very easy experience and probably the most efficient system we've seen since leaving home. Straight in to the doctor, quick diagnosis, he dispensed the medications I needed, told me the cost and wrote out the receipt - amazing and much easier than I expected.
Hope everyone is well at home and everything is OK. Don't work too hard leading up to the silly season and end of year. Miss you all and look forward to your comments on here and seeing you in about 3 weeks time.
Love to all from the happy travellers! xxxx

Varanasi

We arrived in Varanasi three days ago - to noise, bustle, chaotic traffic, rickshaw drivers, thousands of people, a few con men, cows, goats, ferrets, chooks, dogs, dogs, and more dogs, and our hotel right on the burning ghats....yes the 24hour cremation ghat! The air is constantly smoggy and the Ganges is not quite as clean as the Clarence! This is a very significant place for Hindus and many people come here to die and be cremated on the Ganges. We have seen many, many cremations in the last few days - visible from our balconies and the restaurant in our hotel!
We have acquired many new "friends" since arriving in Varanasi. This fellow though has been quite useful and has given James and Robyn several tabla lessons. He also took us to a concert just near our hotel and it was fabulous. There was a sitar player, a tabla player, a singer with the most amazing vocals, and a dancer. They were all so enthusiastic and we were a very small audience - we were very lucky and spoke with the players after the concert.

In the mornings there is much activity on the Ganges - washing hair, bathing, prayers, laundry being done, cremations, buffalo swimming, fishing......really interesting to sit back and watch. At night there are rituals and prayers and candle boats being placed on the water.

Pampered buffaloes!

It can be very colourful with the washing - especially the saris laid out to dry on the steps of the ghats.

Passing the time away on the Ganges!

Our introduction to India has been a little confronting but we figure if we've survived Varanasi we can cope with the rest of India! We are off to Agra tomorrow night on the overnight train and then it's off to see the Taj!

We are all travelling well and the food so far has been good - we found a lovely retaurant last night which had very delicious food for just over $20 for 2 courses and drinks for the four of us!

Hope everyone is well at home - thanks for the comments - keep posting them as we love to hear from you. Love to all and miss you xxx

Nepal & India here we come!

Tomorrow we head off for the beginning of our next trip....to Nepal and India with our lovely friends Robyn and Kristen.

Photo from here
First we are off to Nepal - we fly into Kathmandu and then head across to Pokhara. That's it in the photo above - look at those mountains! And yes we are going to trek...for about ten days...and then spend some time looking around Kathmandu before travelling down to India. We plan to see Varanasi, Agra (ooohhh the Taj Mahal!!!), down to Rajasthan and Pushkar, maybe see a tiger or two!, and then up to Delhi before we fly home. phew...I'm exhausted already!
Hope you check in with us here regularly and leave us a comment - it's easy. Just click on the comment underneath each post and a new box will come up and you type in your message. You don't have to have a google account just tick anonymous...but don't forget to write your name in the message otherwise I won't know who you are! See you in Nepal.....I'm a little bit excited!!!