Friday 23 November 2007

The Taj


Our camp for the night!


Dene getting on the rather grumpy and stinky Kalu!


Nic and Mr Laloo (that is actually his name)


Watch out, they spit!


Dene meets the local desert village kids!!!


Dene with Mukesh, our friendly hotel manager


Relaxing on our rooftop terrace in Jaisalmer


The end of the road!

Well we're in our last stop - Delhi and having survived the hellhole that is Agra relatively unscathed, Delhi is slightly better, but not much! We are however treating ourselves to a nice hotel so we have a place to go where all the touts and scam artists can't reach us - I know, we've turned into cynical travellers!!! Jaisalmer was absolutely fantastic however - everything out of Laurence of Arabia and more! It is exactly what I hoped India would be like although when we were there we felt like we could have been in Pakistan, which we almost were but not quite. We stayed in a beautiful hotel that is part of the walls of the fort, were treated to homecooked meals by the manager's wife and just loved soaking up the atmosphere. There's cows and pigs and goats and dogs lying around everywhere, all the houses are sandstone or painted bright colours, everyone wears bright pinks or yellows and you have to watch your step to avoid all the fresh cow patties - it's wonderful!!!! We also did a camel safari in the Thar desert and slept under the stars on the sand dunes which was very romantic...and very cold - roasting during the day but really freezing at night. Give me an elephant over a camel anyday though - camels, it turns out, are just really smelly and grumpy and have serious flatulence issues - which is particularly unpleasant when you're stuck in a line of camels! It was a fantastic experience though. From Jaisalmer we did a road trip through Jodphur, Jaipur, Agra to Delhi. Jodphur and Jaipur are pretty nice - the fort in Jodphur is particularly good and all the houses are painted sky blue which is lovely. It's pretty interesting travelling by road as well - both the sights on the road and at the side of the road! Performing monkeys, all sorts of transport always packed inside, outside, on the roof and over the edges with people, roaming cattle etc etc. Great fun!

Agra is however a scar on the face of India - dump, hellhole, scam ridden, horrible place! We had to go however to see the Taj which is beautiful, we can even still admit after being pushed, touted and lied to repeatedly when trying to get into the place in the first place(!) We also met a nice Scottish couple there and decided to ditch any attempts to find a nice Indian restauarant and head to Pizza Hut together (the more Scots together the better!) So a pizza and a few beers later and we could almost imagine that our supposed mid range hotel was not a filthy, mozzie infested nightmare!

So we're just relaxing in Delhi as best we can - by the pool and in the shops - before we fly back home. We've had a completely wonderful time - exceeded all of our expectations - actually we can't really describe how much we've enjoyed it but we have, lots!!! Looking forward to seeing everyone though - thank you for looking at our blog!!!!

Love Dene and Nic x

On the road to Jaisalmer