Found some WIFI.....and catching up on our blog....

Wednesday 19 October 2011

Croydon (Home)

It's 4:52am and I've been wide awake since 4am! Went to bed early last night before the end of the Palace v Bristol City game finished (tried listening on Palace Radio but the reception was crap!). Really pleased to hear we won in 81st minute through a dodgy penalty. A win is a win is a win! Now 5th in the league and Brighton's form continues to get worse. Happy days!

Only one day to go before me and Mike go to India - probably why I'm up so early!

Now fully packed and, hopefully, I've remembered everything. Only some decent walking shoes needed. Will go looking for them with Mike this afternoon.

Wokingham (Mike's)

Arrived at 11:30am after an OK journey. Spent rest of the day shopping for shoes and cheapie watch. I think we're almost there as far as being ready is concerned. Just a few last minute pressies at the airport and we're off! Taxi booked for a 5:10am departure.

Thursday 20 October 2011

Heathrow to Delhi (via Dubai)

Set the alarm for 4:10am last night and slept through it despite waking about 3 times during the night to see what the time was! Mad scramble at 4:45 to get ready by the time the taxi arrives. Showered and (badly) dressed in 15 minutes!

Found some nice Calvin Klein and other smellies for the rellos and finished off our Heathrow morning with a pint of London Pride and Hoergarten (with a dash of lime - actually, a slice but I wanted to get the odd 'dash' or two in somewhere. You Anglo's will know where I'm coming from).

Mike
Ok, so we are as on the plane now and I'm beginning to feel the effects of a bad nights sleep... 4 hours kip, interupted by a 2am phone call from the police saying that the office alarm was going off!...however, as my own alarm went off at 4am, it suddenly dawned on me that India was imminent..... It's beginning to finally sink in the adventure that we are about to embark on..... India watch out... The Rice brothers are on our way.

Dave

Flight was good and didn't seem like 6.5 hours. Spent just over 2 hours in Dubai airport lounge chilling in Costa Coffee. Why cram in 100 shops into an airport when fifty will do. All selling mega expensive bling and decor equally as bling.

Mike

The flight was pretty good. 6 hours flew by.. For all the movies available to watch on my own personal screen, one stood out amongst the modern day blockbusters.. The epic, Ghandi! :-) It just seemed like the right film to watch, as in a few days, Dave and I will be in the great mans birth Tom of Ahmedabad.

On arrival in Delhi, we waited for over an hour for our bags due to the broken baggage reclaim belt! We eventually got thought to the other side and was met by our guide, Naveen. After his briefing, we walked outside and was met by the dark, hot, humid and polluted Delhi..

Friday 21 October 2011

...sleepless in Delhi....

Flight to Delhi also good but baggage conveyor crap - belt broke and long wait. We were met by our travel guide, Naveem, a 25 year old with great customer service attitude. Now the journey to Agra.....

.....5 hours mad drive (Indian drivers do it more efficiently and cut out the middle-man. Instead of MSM it's just M...manoeuvre...in any direction they like and whenever they like!) and 27 hours after we woke up to leave the UK we arrived at our hotel (The Howard Park Plaza). 3 hours kip and a bag of Jeera nuts and Bingo Crisps and our batteries were sufficiently charged for a visit to the Agra Fort, some shopping and live show called the Kalacriti Culture Show - a musical about the Taj Mahal and Emperor Shah Jahan's love for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The sound, dance, colours and storyline were brilliant. Finished off the evening with a large bottle of Royal Challenge (brewed by Kingfisher) and a .full Punjabi dinner'.

Hit the sack at 11:15pm...after one of the longest and event filled day I've had in many years!

Mike

We drove for 5 hours overtaking cows and several motorbikes carrying goats........yes... goats!!, and no they were not wearing crash helmets. By the time we arrived in Agra, my eyes were closing - 24 hours travelling with no sleep.

Agra (Taj Mahal) and Jaipur ('the city of jewels')

We decided to see the Taj Mahal at sunrise as we were told it looks best either at the start of the day or as the sun set.

On the road at 6am and in the queue at 6:30am ... 30 minutes later (looks like a lot of people had the same idea) we were in.

I've seen it once before (1995 with Jill) but I'm sure no matter how many times you visit it simply blows you away. It took 22 years and 20,000 workers to build. Im sure the old Shah must have thought that if it's worth doing, it's worth doing well! I wouldn't argue with that.

More on its way if the Internet we've discovered holds out!