Hi from India,
Sorry it has taken me so long to write anything, but trying to find a reasonably quiet internet cafe with a descent connection is pretty hard!
So the first week, what has happened:
A lot basically!
Day 1 was spent in dizzying confusion trying to work out Delhi. We had the hotel booked for the first couple of nights, and, while a little shabby and basic, it was in the center of the main bazaar. The bazaars in India are cooool! You are hassled by everyone for everything, but once you learn to ignore the cries of 'hellloooo' from left and right then you find the gentle tones of 'anything you want' a lot more useful!
So we spent a lot of time wandering around the bazaar area (mainly through fear of getting immediately lost) drinking tea and checking out gift stalls, until for some reason (although the indians would say 'it is written') we randomly decided to give in to an offer to look at travel tours in this tiny little office. The deal sounded good, 2 weeks touring Rajasthan with a driver, hotels, and guides all prebooked and paid for. Totally flexible. 'Anything you want'. Obviously we were cautious, for mummy always told me 'if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!' However, they suggested we take a tour of Delhi the next day with our driver, and if it all felt good then we should talk when we return. And since we had no idea what to do, where to go, and how much a taxi/rickshaw would cost to get there, for 500rps we said yes!
Day2: Delhi
Delhi is definitely an experience. I spend much of the day trying to work out the seemingly free-spirited rules of the road. Its seems that there are no rules, but given this lack of rules the only rule is then - If you're going to overtake, undertake, cut-up, jump a light, drive through pedestrians and/or the wrong way up the road, then USE HORN! As you can imagine, this leads to a ridiculously noisey and crazy traffic system which, ironically, the indians discribe as 'shanti', or relaxed!!
Qutab Minar was the first monument we went to, painfully costing 250rps as opposed to 10rps for nationals, but this has become a trademark for us in India so far. Anyway, the monument itself, like all we saw that day was beautiful! Made more spectacular by the lovely clear blue skies and sunshine! While the monument itself lay in ruins, the 238ft pillar that lies in the center of the complex is almost untouched after hundreds of years, and the fine calligraphic carvings on all the arches and pillars is quite something to behold.
The next stop was Humayun's Tomb, another heritage sight. This complex of buildings was made as a monument to the the Mughal emperor Humayun by his wife (rare for the ladies to be working so hard, and so well!) after he died. It looks a lot like a mini red-sandstone version of the Taj Mahal, but is very beautiful, and with the fading light in the clear sky the sandstone took on a whole new warm hue and sent me snapping away with my camera for hours! There was a great mix of crumbling remains, and timeless and nearly untouched buildings, with the red sandstone contrasted with blue stone work and beautiful writing from the Quran...ah I could go on. And with my camera, I did. So much so that the 3 of the other monuments were closed by the time we (or maybe just I) were done!
However, we did make a quick stop off to see where the Prime Minister lived, though not much could be seen, and also the Presidential Palace (pretty spediforous, yet a long way from the gate!!)
So we headed back soon after to meet the travel planners. We had had less time in mind set aside for Rajasthan and ended up settling for a 12 day tour. The plan was to set off the next day with the same driver (the marvelous Darmesh!) first to Argra to see the Taj Mahal, then to Jaipur, Pushkar, Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Jadhpur and finally Udaipur, before setting off by train to Ahmedabad to catch a flight5 to our next major destination - Kerala. The travel agent seemed quite annoyed as after we had negotiated a price he had to make a couple of upgrades, and even commented, in Hindi to a colleague, that we must have fate on our side as he was now starting to lose out!
So the next day we started out.
I have become aware of how long the first two days are so I will start a new entry for each place, keep it simple!