To Dehli, Agra and Jaipur - New Delhi, India
New Delhi, India
We had booked from the travel agents a train from NJP to Delhi at 1.30 so we were up early to get our taxi to the station. It was much the same story as previous road trips. Mental roads, traffic etc but this time we were in some little Indian equivalent to the micra/ punto or some sort of naff small car. I really didn't think it had the cojones to battle these roads and my assumption was not incorrect - but we'll cross that in a minute. We had stopped for breakfast in roadside cafe which due to a clerical error gent and I had 2 rounds of French toast AND an egg and chips EACH! (rather then each of us having our choices) we also had a coffee and fruit juice each- that was intentional. Out of kindness we also paid for the taxi drivers chapatie and potato. All of this came to 400rps (£4) which is a little crazy really. Unfortunately as the end of our tour draws into sight we find ourselves learning one or two things. One is that actually we have frequented far too many "higher end" restaurants in favour of some of the cheaper places. I wouldn't say they're any less authentic at all and nine times out of ten we have certainly got we have paid for but actually I've come to think that we could have really saved a lot of doh by going to some of the smaller places (and or ordering less). I write this as I tuck into half a chicken byriani and half a chicken noodle portion which has cost us less than £4 in the hotel. Neither of us can finish it and it tastes divine. This is a very seldom occasion whereby we ordered only one thing each (split) and actually we are very satisfied as it is great quality. Most of the time we have spent around £10+ (or 5 each)- which doesn't sound like a lot but actually seeing as though we just both had an amazing dinner for £2 each I kind of feel like we might have got a bit comfortable with ordering too much and experimenting. Either way I don't regret it, I am by nature fascinated by food so it's hardly surprising that we have really 'pushed the boat out' for almost all our time here. I will remember all my meals mainly because 90% are photographed and my palate is well trained. Back to the car- we had been driving about an hour when quite inevitably the driver's side rear tyre blew. The driver managed to change the tyre in not too bad timing whilst we were in a traffic jam so it really didn't lose us that much time in the end. What did lose us time however was when he stopped at the foot of our descent from the higher parts at what was a very poor excuse for a garage. The guy there looked like he had a single digit IQ and was certainly in no rush whatsoever. To be honest neither was the the driver. I was ******** it think we were going to miss our train and he was calm saying it was fine. The tyre was repaired by essentially plugging the puncture with some more rubber that they pushed in with a glorified screw driver. I can't see this being the norm, I'm fairly au fait with cars/mechanics/ repairs etc and not seen this method before? It left a little bit of rubber poking out the tyre so it looked like a proper bodge job and how it ever lasted the proceeding couple of hours I will never know. As it turned out we arrived in good time for our train. After the 45 min wait we waited a little more as the train was inevitably late- sorry for the over use of inevitabilities but it's kind of become a theme that all things here are inevitably inevitable really. Ha! When we boarded we found that our seats/ beds were primely located. The journey was going to take us from 1pm in NJP to about 10.30am in Delhi. As mentioned and demonstrated before the 'AC3' cabin works on the premises of two inward facing benches seating 6 that separate to end up sleeping 6. However on the opposite side as the train is not that wide there are 2 birth seats/ sleeps. Not sure if this makes sense, but the 6 seating is width ways across the length of the the carriage and there are 3 levels x2 where the opposing seats are long ways going with the flow of the carriage and only offering 2 seats of beds. Can't help feel that I've complicated the explanation but what it meant was that gent and I had our own personal area we could share without invasion- which is probably what I should have started by saying. We hadn't sat down for long when the cabin crew member asked us what we wanted for lunch. Previously we had been on the normal trains where people walk the length of the runways shouting about whatever they were selling- samosas, crisps, biscuits, water. Whatever. But this was the 'Rajasthan Express' and famed to be best train in India. It didn't disappoint. Inclusive of our ticket price we had rice lunch, dinner and breakfast. Lunch was, veg curry, a soup thing, a chapatti, a mango carton of drink and a "cake". The so called cake bared resemblance to fibre glass (the yellow stuff in your loft) and had the taste and texture of candy floss. It wasn't completely unpleasant but wasn't great. One thing it certainly wasn't was a cake. We also then got tea and a pot of ice cream for afters, both of which were great. This wasn't exactly gourmet, it was very comparable to airplane style food. Metal, Chinese takeaway style containers etc but to be honest it's not all that bad. When the cuisine is mostly rice, veg and sauce it's something that you can do some justice to in this style. It wasn't the finest Indian we'd eaten by a long shot, but it's still superior to a 'homepride' or tesco's curry. Dinner was a carbon copy except it was meat (chicken) and a yogurt. The cabin member actually ended up giving gent and I am extra portion of chicken curry- no doubt in a bid to get a tip, no one does anything for free here. One of the first things I accomplished on the journey was to finish this book is been reading -"Filth". Another one bites the dust! As I really enjoyed it so much my next in line is "Skag Boys" by the same author, Irvine Welsh. The book is the prequel to 'Trainspotting' and is 600 pages strong so should be a good slog. After finishing the book we played Uno of all things for about 3 hours. It supirsed me how strategic Uno could be as previously I hated the game but as gent and I are avid card players we soon worked out some tricks to really maximise points. We went to sleep about 11pm. Although the beds were exactly the same size as the length of my body (which is too small by the way) I had a reasonably good night's sleep. The train was quite quiet and there weren't many disturbances. We woke up about 8am or so to a breakfast of omelette and bread. We had been pretty well fed during the course of trip and not needed to dip into our pockets at all, which is rare -especially when it comes to nourishment. We arrived in Delhi almost on schedule and exited looking for the first friendly looking, English speaking taxi man. Unfortunately we couldn't find one so ended up with a driver that looked like Carlos Tevez's ugly brother. Tevez, for those of you not fans of kicking the round bally thing into the back of the big rectangle net thing, is a comically unattractive football player- to which he did honestly bare resemblance, but was much uglier. His English was also appalling so another guy ended up coming along for the ride. He had family in Bristol and spoke really really good English. We had wanted to go to a travel agent again to get our bearings and consider our options for the next 10 days and this guy knew exactly the place. We arrived at a small place called "Incredible India". We were welcomed by a guy called Mustafa who had been to England a lot as well as Australia and Europe. His English was pretty spot on and he started to sell us the dream. The biggest tourist attraction of India is the so called "Golden Triangle" it is Delhi - the country's capitol, Agra - where the Taj is and Jaipur - where there are loads of temples, the pink city and is the Capitol of Rajasthan. We looked for trains but as "Diwali" (Indian festival of light) was approaching a lot of travel and accommodation was already fully booked. Our only option was a dedicated car with a chauffeur. Mus went through this great, elaborate itinerary that would take us round the GT and stop off at some other touristy places on the way. It was an 8 day programme that started that day whereby the taxi driver would take us round Delhi giving us a chance to know him. Mus said if we didn't like him we could swap no problem. They had a good set up in there, they all knew what they were doing, were very friendly and it was all quite obviously trust worthy. The essential itinary was something like; Day 1 - Delhi Day 2- leave to Agra - Taj Mahal Day 3 - leave for Ranthambourne - tiger safari Day 4 - tiger safari Day 5 - leave for Jaipur (arriving for Diwali - supposed to be a great place I be for it) Day 6- Jaipur still Day 7- leave for Delhi Day 8- take to airport for Bangkok. Again we had an opportunity to plan out our last week with ease. We would have a dedicated chauffeur who would be our guide and friend and essentially be under our command stoping and taking us wherever we would like. Realistically we had little choice the only way we were going to get it all done was this was and it sounding very appealing. Unfortunately the price didn't. His initial price to us was £473 each for 8 days. Seeing as though we had budgeted £800 for India, £1000 at a push, this was well out the question. We said it sounds great but it's just not possible. We haggled, talked about missing out a few bits, downgrading hotels anything to drive the price down. We eventually settled on £350 each. I am constantly mixing between thinking that this is a great price and that it isn't. I mean yes, by English standards, easily. But Indian standards I'm not so sure. What I am sure of is that there is no way we could accomplish this another way and that even if things weren't choca-block, arranging individual trains and taxi's would be such a nightmare that part of the cost was justified by the convenience of it all. In the end we thought long and hard and just said screw it, we'll have to go out with a bang. He rang our cards though pretty sheepish and called a driver. The drive came to the door- a short, plump but smiley man named "Bridges Kumar" or at least that's what it sounded like. We set off on our trial day. He took us to our hotel- which was the nicest one yet, in fact through our time in India we have consistently got better and better hotels so we were hoping this trend would continue. We checked in, had a nice WARM Shower - thanks!! And headed back out. He took us round to what he referred to as the VIP area of Delhi. Beautiful, well kept fields and gardens that was unlike any other part of India. It actually looked like a modern city- good roads, nice buildings, clean streets etc. this was just the VIP bit though, a lot of the city was comparable to other big cities but the roads and building were better all round still. We saw "president's house" along with a few more temples and the Lotus Flower (their national flower) Monument. It was all very nice and having the dedicated driver made everything very easy. We got to know him slowly but surely. He was a bit if a joker- spoke loudly but seemed to have to have good intentions and want to cater for all our needs. At 6 o'clock we arrived back at the agents to confirm we were happy to go ahead with "Kumar". Mustafa said great news and that we can buy him lunch on our return. We got a few buds in and watched "the rock" which was on TV in the hotel room and got to sleep around 11am. The first day little happened. We got more acquainted with Kumar and realised he was probably a bit of a sex pest. He kept asking us if we had girlfriends, how many times we kissed them, how many time we ...... them etc. I mean he was smiley and jokey but it was clear that he was a little bit weird. He asked us if we wanted some girls and he said he could get us some- we declined and said we had no interest. Not only would it definitely be dodgy but we had no cash anyway - ;) haha! He continues to tell us he really wanted a foreign girl - even though he was married and we stopped off at some more unique temples along the way. We arrived in Agra and he said that we would get a guide to take us around the Taj, at first a guide came to the window and they argued back and fourth before I said "come on guys let's sort this out" and the guide buggered off. Apparently he was trying to charge us for the small 100m ride to the Taj (as you have to use an electric vehicle once you get into the grounds- no fuelled/ pollution allowed) it's a reasonable idea but I think just another way to make money and employ people really. There were electric carts, tuc tuc and camels (a new one) that would all take you the short walk. We walked towards the Taj as the guide joked about one thing or another and started talking to us about ignoring the many tourist hunters that would try and sell you stuff. We got out tickets (20rps for Indians - 750 for foreigners- huh??). This did allow us to jump the huge queue as we were "high value ticket holders". We walked into the main square where there is an arch that led to the Taj. The guide gave us a bit more spiel about the area before we finally walked through the arch to unveil the Taj Mahal in all its glory. It was quite a sight but not really what I had envisaged. It's hard at this point, I will always be honest I'm never much else, but faced with one of the 'wonders of the world' can I really say that I was disappointed? I don't know if that is too harsh to say. It wasn't an anticlimax, far from it, however I was expecting to be more in awe of it. I recall someone once saying it was surrounded by a load of **** but the Taj itself was spectacular. Yes, it was an incredible and beautiful example of architectural brilliance but I had an expectation of it dwarfing all the other temples I had seen. I know bigger isn't always better and that size shouldn't play such a factor, but it just didn't seem all that big. I think that a lot of photos generally do it justice, as I look back at the photos I took which also weren't all that great and it looks better than what I thought at the time. I don't mean to be completely negative, it really was great to marvel at but I think some things struggle to fill the shoes they have been given. The Taj Mahal is one of the greatest things to view on this entire planet -or so you would be led to believe. It truly was a great thing to see but in honesty it just didn't take my breath away, which is what I was hoping for. It was built in 1631 and took 22 years to build, so I suppose that adds some value. Apologies, I feel like a bit of a dick for slating the Taj Mahal but it is what it is. I have for sanity checked what I've written with Gent and he has agreed and echoed my thoughts so that makes me feel better. From the Taj we went to Agra Fort, we got out the car and had a look around but decided not to go in. It just looked like a massive fort and seeing as though we'd been paying money to get in everywhere we thought we'd skip this one. After that we went to a marble works place where they cut and design marble into various pieces. There was a short demonstration with a couple of guys cutting bits of marble and stone and then we went into a room filled with marble tables and surfaces. It was all quite impressive. Some of the designs were incredible and they were all handmade which just topped it off. They had a shop but we really had no use for anything marble related so thanked them and left. We went to our new hotel to find 3 French girls outside drinking beer. They were all a bit older 30-31 but thought it might present an opportunity for some socials a little later. Whilst checking in there were also another pair of girls doing the same. We asked where they were from and they said London. We asked of they wanted to meet us for a drink later as we had nothing to do and they said it sounded like a good idea. We dumped our stuff in our room, got showered and headed to meet them in the lobby. We had a good chat for about an hour and was joined by another English guy called Billy who was from Brighton. We all decided to grab some dinner at the hotel together. We had a nice meal and then decided to play some cards. We played '********' which is a bluffing game (incase you couldn't guess) we had been playing for about 10 mins when Kumar our taxi driver turned up- battered. We had donated two of our strong 8% beers to him because we didn't like them very much and he had polished them off and wanted in on the action. So here we were, our nice game interrupted by our lightweight taxi driver who not only didn't understand the rules that well but whose English (speaking and understanding) did not improve with alcohol. It was quite funny and we were ******* ourselves at times but after about 20 mins it became tiresome so we all had to sort out an escape plan. We got up and left the restaurant but Kumar collared gent straight away and took him outside for a hug and a good talk to- he is far too accommodating that boy. I later found out that he was convinced we had "pulled" them and therefor not only was sex a done deal but also he quite literally wanted to have seconds. Because that's how I think he thinks it works. That us western folk just screw anyone and everyone no holds barred orgy style. After about 10 mins of man love gent was finally released back to us by this time it had already got pretty late, the girls were up at 6am for a sunrise Taj Mahal thing and we had lost our enthusiasm for the evening with the drunken interruption. We said it was nice to have met them all and wished each other the best of luck on our respective travels. We went straight to sleep. We set of the next day to Ranthambhore, a city famed for its tiger safaris. Alas this is where everything would again take a violent turn for the worst, if only we had known. It was a fairly uneventful drive made better by playing a few tunes through Kumar's radio which had an auxiliary input for our iPods. I also downloaded Bobby's blog "Gent Turning Troll" that he started shortly before leaving to Norway. Although a lot of the main points of the blog I learnt when I went out to visit him it was a good read and I was glad to be fully up to speed with all his progressions. It was also really heart warming to hear how happy and in love he was with his beautiful girlfriend Marianne. A nice little touch. After a few more sights and another obscenely over priced roadside restaurant we arrived early afternoon. We hadn't been there too long when it became clear that there were several school trips here as well. This was tedious in the most unfunny way. They have no fear about their curiosity and or trying to ask stupid questions to impress their friends. They're also noisy little *****. The hotel itself was quite nice. Very open and large safari themed reception and a reasonable room. They had wifi but it wasn't in the room so we sat in the lobby making our necessary contacts/ updates etc. I tried to upload some photos but it wasn't happening. We got an early night ready for our 6am wake up for the safari. We woke up form a phone call saying the guy was here and rushed getting dressed and headed out. We met our guide who was attired in cliche safari vest, hat and leopard print scarf. He seemed like a good bloke but was rushing us as they had to pick up 2 more groups. We sat in the open top jeep in nothing but our vests and shorts realising that we might be a bit cold as the sun hadn't rose yet but we didn't have any time. As we signed the waiver which was basically stating that if we got mauled and or eaten by a tiger that it was our own fault and no one was liable. The guy asked if we had our passports which I did but gent didn't so he ran in and got his before we left. We drove 8k and inevitably froze out bollocks off. We arrived at this incredible looking hotel. It looked like a huge palace surrounded by trees and huge 30ft walls. We pulled up and there were 3 long wheel based open top people carrying lorry jobbies. Not sure what they would really be called. They seated about 25-30 at a guess. We were there for a couple of minutes when 100 white Europeans started flooding out the hotel in convoy. One truck filled with Germans and 2 with Americans. It was a funny sight. We were joined by an older couple probably pushing 60 from Oxford way, they were nice enough and we had a little chat whilst we went to our next hotel. At the second hotel we were joined by another Middle aged woman and her young son who must have been around 12. The safari itself was ok. The park was nice and clearly vast. I think they said 400sq km. We saw quite a few animals but unfortunately not the elusive tiger. There are only 40 odd tigers so they are fairly spread out. From memory we saw. Deer (spotted and non), Boar, Kingfisher, Heron, Antelope, Crocodile, Monkey, and a Monitor Lizard. We were cruising around for about 3 hours before heading back. We were disappointed and felt as though we really hadn't got the value that it had probably cost (we were led to believe somewhere around the £50 mark). When we got to the hotel about 11 I felt like utter ****. I was tired and knackered so took a lay down whilst gent went and read his book in the sun. I slept for about 4 hours and woke feeling not much better. I had a sore throat which instantly set of the alarm bells in my head. Tonsil-*******-it us I thought. Unfortunately I'm very prone to it, I get it quite genuinely once a year if not two. I got it in Australia whilst I was in Bundaberg and the following year back at home. Recognising the signs early have been key to my recovery and helping me through it as it really knocks me for six. The last few times, this time included I've caught it reasonably early and it's still meant 48 hours in bed with me sweating like a blind dyke in a fishmonger's. I checked my tonsils and I couldn't see any white marks yet, but I was pretty certain it was only a matter of time. I didn't leave the bed until the following day. I woke up the next day, with everything feeling worse. I checked my tonsils and first white marks had sprouted, outstanding. We packed the car- which in itself killed me with these flu like symptoms and I got in the front seat sweating like mad. I laid the seat back flat, put my headphones, covered my face with my hood and wept. I didn't really weep. It was three hours to Jaipur and Kumar made sure I felt every single minute of it with his unrelenting horn. Everyone beeps a lot here but he is particularly liberal with his sometimes just letting it ring out from the moment he sees a car until he's actually passed the sodding this. Did I mention I had a headache? No? Oh right, I had a *****ing headache for good measure too. The roads were ***** and it was all in all quite horrible. Just as a last cherry on top Kumar played some Indian music so loud I could hear it over my headphones. If only I had the energy to punch him. One saving grace did present itself (thank god) India in its infinite dodgyness sells all sorts of drugs over the counter at specialist drug stores. One of they things they sell is antibiotics, more specifically amoxicillin- which being a regular suffer I know to be the prescribed antibiotic for tonsillitis. Jackpot. I bought 14 for 500rps (£5) and double dropped two right then. Hopefully this would help with the whole healing process but most importantly it would mean I didn't have to go to the doctors, or worse the hospital. I don't want to imagine how fun that wouldn't be. We arrived at the hotel which looked really nice like an Indian temple but I had no appreciation for it at the time as I just wanted my bed. Whilst checking in the receptionist asked for our passports (as every hotel has) and I handed over mine and gent looked worried as it wasn't in his traveling safety neck pouch thing. He then started searching through his bag without much luck. "****" he said, I must have left it at the other hotel. At this point I hadn't a sympathetic bone in my body, I was far too preoccupied with feeling sorry for myself and just called him a dick or something. They took me to the room where I got changed and laid horizontal.