18/2 - Home!

So, we're home. Though much of the day I've felt like a (barely) walking zombie after a 2nd night flight (and hence next to no sleep) I'm very happy to be home and relaxing in a familiar environment.

The 4-hour wait in Sydney for our Canberra connecting flight was tough - (overpriced airport) chocolate was our saviour in terms of remaining awake. Maria was overjoyed on seeing the kids in Canberra (I think she scared some of the bystanders at the terminal with her voiciferous tears).

The afternoon has been spent with mum and the kids, trying to create for them a picture of India with all its contradictions, while we slowly unpacked, gave presents, showed some pictures etc. I crashed between 5 and 6, but its now after 10pm and mum is filling us in on how the kids have been while we were away. Hopefully we'll resynch with oz time.

"Its good to be home", Maria just said as we said goodnight to mum - and truer words have rarely been spoken.

17/2 - Tired in Singapore

Well, its 6:20pm on the last "overseas" day of our trip. I'm standing here in the public internet access area at Changi (Singapore) airport, and Maria is using the machine on the pther side of the stad to check her email - there are about a dozen other people doing the same things about me to the sound of keyboard clicks and the background muzak.

So, here we are in Singapore, with our return flight (into Sydney) in about 2 hours. We arrived in this morning at 6am from the 4-odd hour flight from Bangalore. Due to the time difference (we gain 2.5 hours coming back) and the time of departure we've effectively had no sleep now since the day before last in Bangalore.

Arriving in we went through immigration (trivially simple) and then followed directions to the Singapore Airlines counter that would resolve our day usage for a hotel (given by the airline because they had cancelled one of our connecting flights). After about 20 minutes we were given a bus ride to the hotel we would be able to use for the day. Several things became clear - Singapore is *humid* (as soon as you leave the terminal building you are "hit"; and that was 7am in the morning), we'd be picked up again from the hotel at 5pm (giving us some 10 hours), Singapore and India are "worlds apart", and Maria was very, very tired - she was asleep on my shoulder by the time we'd pulled out of the parking lot, and hard to rouse when we arrived at the hotel.

The hotel was fairly basic, and while it was tempting to crash on the bed for a "short" rest, we knew that would be the end of any plans for the day. So I quickly grabbed a shower, Maria another short nap, and then we headed back to reception to arrange a half-day tour of Singapore City. We'd also arranged to meet Simon at the hotel at 1pm for lunch. This turned out to be somewhat of a problem because the tour would extend to about 2pm. In the end it was resolved by the tour guide who arranged for us to miss the final part of the tour (botanic gardens), and be driven back to our hotel.

{Back again: These machines are on a 15-minutes oer session timer, and quite slow, lets see if I can wrap this up quickly} In a separate post I want to talk about the various contrasts between India and Singapore that occured to me throughout the day. As to the day tour it was quite interesting, though most of the time was spent on the bus, rather than witnessing/exploring sites. Not only was this quite a contrast with the India guided tour experiences we had had, so was the price - in Jaipur we had paid 200 rupees (about AU$6) each for a full day guided tour, here we paid S$30 (about $30 oz) each for the 3.5 hours we spent on the tour. Maria continued to be exhausted and sought cans of coke at each of our stops so as to employ the caffeine hit to stay awake. For me the highlight of the tour was visiting the oldest Chinese temple on the island (I'll dig up the name another time) - it was very beautiful and well maintained and I liked the array of gods that were represented and worshipped (which included Guan Yu - the martial hero). A very surreal experience was the visit to the Tiger (Beer) factory. They used a weird multi-media presentation (Australian made based on the voices and actors that were seen) structured that included live commentary, as well as polarised stereoscopic vision on a movable stage floor (hence they moved us around, blew wind on us etc.) to tell a comic-like story of the brewing process. The tour culminated with a visit to the bar where they pulled each person a beer and toasted to Tiger. On the way our we were each presented with a bag with a tiger beer glass - so now I'm carrying a bag with 5 (friendly other passengers) beer glasses in it as well as my backpack - lets see if that gets through security and the flights home unscathed. The last part of the tour for us was the "jewelery factory". Some aspects of tourist exploitation are universal - there was a *horde* of saleswomen (about one per member of the tour) following us around and hoping we would buy the clearly very expensive jewelry (Maria says: $2,800 for a necklace). They were promoting stuff like saying we have 50% off watches, or this new stone (Lavender something - they called it the Millenium stone because it was "the stone for the 21st Century - lol!) was said to be lucky by the Feng Shui masters. Needless to say we bought nothing, nor did most of the other toursists.

Then we were whipped back to our hotel and in a matter of a few shorts minutes there was Simon arriving in a taxi. Of course, the years had had their way with all 3 of us, but it was clearly Simon, and a joy to see him again. We quickly decided on going to the nearby Japanese restaurant for lunch. A good move as the food was delicious and quite authentic, and despite our troublesome tums, Maria and I both ate well (Maria Oyakudon, and I Katsundon, plus some yummy Agidashi Dofu). Most importantly it was a great venue for sitting and chatting about life the universe and everything with Simon. Before we knew it the restaurant was empty and we were eventually shown the door (after further long chats). Simon had to return to work, but it was 2:30pm - we had 2.5 hours before our return trip to the airport. So we grabbed a ride with Simon to Chinatown to do some impromptu shopping at the markets there. Thats when the humidity and our fatigue really hit us. We felt rather disappointed at the apparent poor quality of the goods and before long decided to high tail it back to the cool, airconditioned environs of the hotel room for a shower (my 2nd of the day). We both accidently crashed on the bed and it was lucky the TV controls dropped out of my hand and awoke Maria (Maria: it literally fell onto my forehead). By this time it was 5pm and our bus was already visible outside reception. So now here we are.

The day in Singapore has felt a bit "unreal" for which I attribute our fatigue and the fact that we were just "skimming the surface" - aware we had to leave shortly and hence just doing the simple tourist highlights and not feeling engaged or a part of the movements of the city. Well, we'll be back in oz in 10 hours or less (7am oz time) - I wonder how we'll feel then - no doubt *extremely* tired - here's hoping we each get at least a few hours sleep.

16/2 - Last Day in India

Its just gone 6pm here, and once again I'm down in the hotel foyer. I've just done a bit of reading on Singapore City, as we have a day there tomorrow.

I'll keep this short as our taxi will come at 7pm, in order to get us out to the airport (17km I believe) for our 11:30pm flight. Yes, thats right, the traffic in Bangalore is that bad that we need to allow 2 hours to travel that short distance.

Last night we "took" Sameer to the Hard Rock Cafe on MG road, as well as saying our farewells - we didn't want to get up at 6am this morning to say "see you in Canberra in a week or so".

Today has been fairly quiet for us - both still not over the gastro as well as knowing that we'd be leaving in the evening. A good chunk of the morning was spent "doing the packing-thing" - we're ditching a fair amount of material here in order to hopefully stay inside the weight limitations of Singapore Airlines (as well as the space constraints of our bags). You should expect to see a pciture of what we left behind once we're back in oz.

With all that sorted we decided to do some final "quiet" sightseeing in order to be back in plenty of time to the hotel. As such we travelled by auto rickshaw to Lalbagh Botanic Gardens. These are famous city gardens inspired/modelled-on (?) Kew Gardens in England, and named after Red Roses. A surprising element of the day was that the driver actually used the meter, rather than negotiating a price.

The gardens are nice with some beautiful trees, and flower beds. However the sun was particularly strong today, and neither of us had applied blockout (one of the items we had put in the "to be left behind" pile). As such our walk through the gardens became hops from one shaded bench or area to another.

Perhaps the highlight of the gardens was the band of monkeys that we found in one section. They had a number of playful babies, but most surprising was when one of the adult monkeys casually walked over and occupied the bench right next to me (within arm's reach). Close up this breed (sorry - can't name it) has a set of impressive canines ... thoughts of rabbis went rapidly through my mind. However, and fortunately, the monkey was placid and shortly jumped up into the tree that was providing us with shade.

Tired, needing a place out of the sun, and some food (even though we weren't particularly hungry) we elected to visit the same mall as we had spent some time in yesterday. There's probably not much to report about this - it was much quieter today (working day) than yesterday, we did a small amount of souveneir/omiyage shopping, got a light lunch, and then headed back.

Well, I don't really know whether we'll be able to make an entry tomorrow. The airline is providing us with day usage of a hotel room so it will depend on several factors such as how well we are rested after the flight, the hotel's amenities, what sightseeing we attempt, and whether we can catchup with Simon.

One thing I can say with certainty though is that we're both very much looking forward to getting home and seeing our family and friends again. See you guys soon!

15/2 - Of Parks, Museums, & Malls

Its just after 6pm, and I'm sitting down here on one of the two public computers in the hotel's foyer. Immediately behind me on the left is the inner door to the hotel's attached restaurant - from which I can hear the laughter of the staff. In front of me is the large wooden statue of Ganesh that occupies the centre of the foyer - beyond Ganesh is the security guard standing at a rostrum (guarding access to the stairs and lift?; there's another guard out the front of the hotel) and then the reception desk. I'm down hre because the laptop's hard-drive has begun to fail and its next to impossibleto do anything on it. The net effect is that its unlikely I'll be able to add any further pictures till we're back in oz.

Anyway. This morning Maria was still not over the gastro, though (perhaps) somewhat better than yesterday. So we puttered around the room for a fair chunk of the morning, which included Maria taking the stronger Azimythrocin (almost certainly spelled wrong as I don't have any resources here with me). We decided to do something fairly simple and not too demanding. Visit one of the 2 famous parks here in Bangalore, then go to one of the best malls in Bangalore. The later having several advantages such as proximity to decent dunnies, decent (safe) food, etc.

Cubbon park is the name of the park we visited - quite centrally located (e.g., one edge of the park abuts the state parliament). The park is large and crisscrossed with roads (at unusual angles) making it hard to navigate. One thing was clear - that Bangalore is a tropical city - great big elephant ear plants, giant trees, etc. - it reminded us of Brisbane in terms of its vegitation.

Getting some directions we found our way to the Karnataka State Museuam and attached art gallery. Price of entry - the princely sum of 4 Rupees (about 13 cents) each. Now, the museum is really quite rundown and poorly maintained, but it does have some wonderful temple bas reliefs and statues from temples.

Let me give a little anecdote that I believe is so illustrative of our experiences here in India. Entering the hall in which the statues were found Maria was ahead of me and said g'day (hi) to the young security guard sitting nearby. He smiled back in a friendly way and then said that it was Ok if we took photos. Now, it was a condition of entry that there was to be no photography or videos taken. OK, what a nice guy we thought. We wandered the hall (containing maybe 20-30 odd statues and temple carvings) for sometime. Meanwhile he exchanged his role with someone else. When we subsequently moved over to the art gallery (a bit too glorified a name really) we were happily surprised to find the guard in the chamber on the 1st floor. Well, at first. He started talking to us about coffee and 20 rupees. Huh?, was our first reaction. Turned out he was asking us for 20 rupees because, he claimed, he had taken a coffee break to allow us to take photographs of the statues. "No thanks", Maria said, "we didn't take any photos." So there's an example of a guard's entrepeunuerial [sp??] skills, and the type of cultural misunderstanding that tendsto occur to us several times each day. I'm sure (with hindsight) that he must have thought it was bleeding obvious that he expected a tip from us for the photos and based upon the friendly way we were acting towards one I'm sure he expected it. On the other hand we had no clue and, taken in the context of so many people seeming to want money from us, were affronted with his persistence (he followed us along one wall of the chamber as we deliberately ignored him and spoke to one another) in asking for money.

Let me mention one thing more about the art gallery. It was "infested" (too strong a word, but when you're covering yourself in rid and aeroguard each morning, as well as taking anti-malaria tablets each day, any mosquito is an unwelcome sight) with mozzies. There was a big pool of still water outside in which the mozzies must have been breeding. To my surprise (Maria had gone off to find the gallery's dunny - turned out to be pit/trench type) the ground floor art chamber had dozens of mozzies in it...and they were persistent...following me around despitethe industrial strength repellent I had on {On the subject of mosquitoes, Maria and I have each found a few bites on our bodies - probably occuring later at night and/or in our hotel rooms when the repellent has lost strength}.

After a very quick run through of the art gallery we decided to head to "Garuda Mall". This is a well known "up-market" mall in the MG Road (up market) area of Bangalore. We found the ubiquitous metal detectors and security guards on the mall doors and a lot of very prosperous Indians. In many aspects the mall was very similar to ones in oz, the US, etc. Many international franchises like Baskins Robbins or Marks & Spencers were there. We did a small amount of shopping (where ohh where are we going to carry/fit all this stuff??) and were able to find a couple of nice things as well as lunch in the large food court (I had Subways - still wondering if that was wise given the heavy use of salads and "danger" due to the ingredients having been washed in water, while Maria had a simple vegitarian rice dish).

We also replenished our supply of medicines - in particular electrolyte replacements (basically a powder you mix with water) and Gastro-stop/Imodium - a medicine for stopping the runs. Now buying medicine in India is very interesting. What you need to know is the primary/active ingredient in your medicine of choice and its concentration (e.g., 2mg, 500mg, whatever). Asking for a brand name will generally not work. So you ask for the particular chemical and the chemist rips off a foil tab of 10 tablets or so, lets you check that the chemical ingredients are the same, then just gives you that foil to purchase. "Are there any instructions?", Maria asked. The chemist paused for a second or so - just long enough for us not to believe whatever he said, "Take one morning and night", was his reply. Fortunately, our aussie version of the same medicine had had very explicit instructions.

By that time it was getting late and we decided to get an auto rickshaw (as we have been doing each day, usually multiple times per day) back to our hotel - a ride of maybe 20 minutes or so. {BTW, I tell this story not because its unusual, in fact its quite typical - so it conveys our daily experience}. There were a lot of auto rickshaw drivers out the front (why not - a mall frequented by wealthy Indians and foreigners) and they swooped as we came down the stairs: "Where do you want to go?" said the leader. "LG Road, Hotel Bangalore gate" we replied. Aftre one or two repetitions they nodded their head and indicated an auto rickshaw - "Come". Now is the time you say "How Much?". "150 rupees" he replied. I laughed and counter offered 50. "No, it is all the way on the other side of town" he indicated. "100". "No, 50 I said". "OK, I do it for 80" he offered. No, we both said. "How much you pay then?" 60 I said. No, no, 80 they said. So we walked away...and within 3 seconds were called back and told we would be taken for the 60 rupees. Often Maria does this bargaining and I suspect she is considerably better than me. Sometimes, such bargaining can be fun (when you're feeling "up"), and Sameer says he enjoys it because you get to know people (although if you watched you'd often think Sameer was about to have a fight with the driver he is bargaining with). However often it seems like a big drain - the drivers always start from some "outragious" price (sometimes you forget that even 150 rupees ain't many ozzie dollars) and are always trying to fleece you.

Well, time for me to return to the room for some rest. At 8:15 we'll meet up with Sameer for a last meal together. The intention is to go to MG Road and the Hard Rock Cafe there at Sameer's suggestion/request - we owe him and his family so much for making our holiday enjoyable as well as all the hard work and effort he put in for AeroIndia.

14/2 (Day 2 of confinement) - Thank heaven for HBO

Well, it's Friday morning here and Spike is off to Aero India after spending yesterday locked up in the room with me watching movies all day. Yes, even Spike with his strong constitution ended up getting sick, though after taking some gastrostop and gastrolite yesterday, he seems a little better this morning. I'll be here all day again, but hoping that I'll be able to make it out for a short walk or something.

I have to say, after the real grizzle I had in the last post that I wrote, that the guys at the front desk of the hotel here are all lovely, as are the roomservice guys which we've been using a bit lately. We asked for a chemist yesterday to go out and buy some antibiotics (no prescription needed here) and after about a 15 min walk around the block, didn't manage to find one of the many they said were located around here. We did manage to find 3 dispenseries for 'sexual problems', but neither of us were game to go, in assuming they were for viagra only. Spike's already been laughed at for wearing a skirt in Delhi and been giggled at for wearing a traditional Indian top here, so he drew the line at that. So we came back to the hotel empty handed and explained to the guys what happened and immediately they offered to go buy some for us. The 3 tablets ended up costing 56 rupees ($1.80) and we've got them for backup. Neither of us has the severe form, no vomitting, fever etc, so we decided we'd follow our doctors travel advice and see how we go in a few days. If neither of us is better by tomorrow, we'll take the antibiotics then.

Well, he'll be back from breakfast soon to take the laptop with him, so that's really about all there is to say. Sincerely hoping this is the last day I'll be sick and that we'll be out and about soon, continuing our amazing adventure.

12/2 - Mall Madness (Maria Speaks)

Well, here I am out at sigma mall about to try an Indian cuppaccino. It's about 12.11pm and the first time I've ventured out of the hotel since yesterday lunchtime. I haven't eaten anything since dinner last night (oh, except for a tiny ladyfinger banana which was included in our complementary bowl of fruit), and am hoping that my bowels have finally settled after ridding my body of whatever it was that I ate a couple of days ago, that was so poisonous to my system. I believe it was the lunch we had at the restaurant that our tuktuk driver 'recommended' to us a couple of days ago.

My immune system has finally cracked after what has been an amazing but stressful time here in many ways, and the crippling headache I suffered yesterday (lucky I was at the hotel cause I could barely walk up the stairs to the room), and the two huge coldsores I've developed on my lip, are proof of that. Part of the stress is caused by having to almost 'fight' off the constant assults on my conscience and purse. As an example, when I left the hotel at noon, I was immediately surrounded by 3-4 tuktuk drivers who park out the front of the hotel waiting for foreigners like me to walk out. These drivers all speak English pretty well and almost fight over your body to get a job for 3x the usual price. They then take you to where you want to go but on the way, happen to know a good place to shop and restaurant to eat at. Well, this morning I was determined to get a driver who knew no English and had no friends with businesses, so just a local driver rather than one looking for tourists. So I walked past the guys at the hotel, though they followed me for half a block and as soon as I was far enough away, I stopped a guy on the road, asked if he knew where I wanted to go, and then told him how much I would pay him. Of course he tried to up the price, but I knew the price was more than fair already, so he accepted. The funny thing was, after telling the drivers at the hotel I didn't need a tuktuk and I wanted to walk, I didn't realise that we'd have to drive right past the guys I'd walked away from in 60 seconds, to get to this mall. I looked the other way as we drove past them feeling guilty, but afterwards thought I should just let it go,

Anyway, I made it to the mall fine, but even at this most modern of places the guy at the coffee guru, tried to get me to pay 90 rupees for the coffee I ordered which was meant to be 65 rupees. When I questioned it, he gave me the menu and pointed to a coffee cake deal. When I said no, he was quite affronted. I don't know why I felt like I had to apologise and explain that I was gluten intolerant and so couldn't eat the cake, cause he didn't understand me anyway! I insisted only coffee and am hoping that's all it was! ;-)

Well, I think I've got the energy to go off and explore. We came to this mall the other night with Sameer, but the shops were all closed up so might have a wander. Like any mall anywhere in the world it has a food court, so might try to find some bland, ie non indian food to give my tummy a break. If I get a chance, I'll write a bit more when I sit and have my next coffee. Ciao
I just bought a pack of cornflakes at the small but familiar looking supermarket. I had half the pack which allowed me to take my doxicycline (malaria) tablets.

Ok, on to the small amount of shopping I got to do. There are very trendy shops in here, like all the brand clothing and accessorie stores that I'm not interested, but I fortunately found a DJ's lookalike store with a wide variety of goods which included a section of traditional style dresses. Up until now I haven't bought any clothes for myself cause I didn't think they would have my size. However, like most countries, the size of it's affluent population is increasing, so I was able to find clothes too big even for me! Luckily for me, all the stores are having end of season sales, as Hina had told me before, so everything is half price or 40% off the already low price. Yay!

I'm sure Spike has mentioned it before, but the security here at hotels, Aero India and this mall is amazing, I'm guessing since Mumbai. This mall has 4 floors, and at the entrance and at the top and bottom of every escalator and staircase, there are TWO guards and metal detectors you have to walk through. I don't know how effective they are, but they are definitely making a good show of protecting us all.

Well, it's nearly 5pm, and I've been dashing to the loo all day. I planned to go to the beautiful gardens here this afternoon, but I haven't been able to leave the 4 star loos here that I've been dashing to all day. Spike should be about to board the bus to get here and should be here in about an hour, hooray! I might take a quick break outside to escape this constant mall muzac. I'll also try to take a photo without arousing suspicion. Don't want to be hauled off by the guards for behaving suspiciously. They're probably already watching me carefully cause I've been loitering for 5 hours now! Well, battery on pda's about to die, so better go. Ciao!

11/2 - Paying for the Trip

Ahhh, its 9pm here and the friendly young guy (hotel room service staff) has just come to take away the room service we ordered earlier (Peking Fried Rice - so green!, and Onion Dosai). The food has given me enough energy to get some thoughts down - we're both very tired today.

So today AeroIndia began and I went off to work. That entailed Sameer and I meeting downstairs for breakie at 7:15, before getting an autorickshaw across town to the hotel that the "Team Australia" members were staying at. That, so we could get an 8:30 bus (hired by the team) to the Yelehanka airforce base, where AeroIndia was to be held.

The bus trip was over an hour in length, primarily due to the security measures taken. By which I mean our bus was borded with a sniffer dog, our ids checked etc. Then after debussing we went through a makeshift (as in a tent) security screening such as you would find in the airport - xray machine, metal detector, etc. This, all in a very chaotic, very Indian (from my limited experience) atmosphere of confusion, excesses of people, etc.

I don't wish to dwell on the airshow too much, but it was a mass of contradictions:- car spaces drawn in white lime on the dusty rocky fields; old hangars airconditioned and used as the pavilions for display; migs, eurofighters, jaguars, etc. parked on display on the runway like at a carshow; 3-star Indian generals being driven around in 50s style cars; purpose built pavilions constructed by the wealthiest companies (e.g., Rolls Royce); the filthiest toilet I have ever witnessed; an almost complete lack of food stalls (yet a 5-star restaurant); and 2 x 2-hour air displays by modern fighters - so close you felt you could reach out and touch them and nothing could be heard in the pavilions other than the booming roar of the engines.

Whether it was wise for UNSW to attend will become clear across the next 4 days - certainly today we received few true visitors; though we did get lots of drivers, police and other support people come by just to grab freebies.

It was 7-ish when Sameer and I reached our hotel, and we were both feeling very tired. Maria and I had maintained some contact via SMS during the day. I knew that Maria had been sick in the morning (as I had - we both suspect the lunch of yesterday), had gone shopping locally as well as to "MG" (Mahatma Ghandi) road. One rickshaw driver had been so insistent that Maria just visit one shop (their standard approach as they earn commission) despite Maria's insistence to be taken back to the hotel, that Maria jumped out of the rickshaw when it was stopped at the lights. I found Maria had been sick with a bad heachache all afternoon and had sequistered herself in the room here. As I type now I note that she is in much better shape than when I first returned.

AeroIndia was tiring today. I'm not looking forward to the next 4 days of the same. We shall see how it goes. But for now goodnight.

10/2 Around Bangalore

Some placeholder notes:
* An autorickshaw tour guide
* The bull/Ganesh temple - impressive and moving
* Bangalore parliament - grand and impressive
* The king's tudor palace - king still resident, $70,000 to hire the hall for Zoe's wedding (according to guide), run-down but real history
* The rickshaw driver turns selfish
* A suspect lunch
* Back to hotel
* Austrade briefing at Fortuna JP Cosmo
* Poor Tandori dinner but gelato for after (1st non-Indian food?)

9/2 - Singh is King

After 10pm here, and Maria and I are safely esconsed in our hotel room. Maria has been cruising the 80+ stations on the TV (hell, there was even an aussie station) while I've been adding images to the blog for the last wee-while.

Bangalore is a very different place to either Jaipur or Delhi. Its the most affluent place of the three we've visited (as guaged by the type of cars on the roads, type of stores, lack of visible poverty, etc.), is tropical (its actually green...and other exotic colours; and we even saw water!), and a very vibrant place.

Our hotel is kind of mid-range and in a very active area of the city - not the up-market district but a place frequented by the residents of the city itself. Around 7pm we walked out in search of an ATM and also a place to eat and were overwhelmed by the energy of the place. While Delhi is more frenetic and dog-eat-dog, the energy here is more structured and focussed, as well as being more "vibrant".

We walked the streets for over 30 minutes and were unable to find any sit-down restaurant though there were a number of corner/street food vendors, plus a number of "standup only" food establishments {Aside: As we were walking along Maria got a real start as she failed to notice the extremely large cow that was lying on the sidewalk in front of her - in every city we've visited, we've witnessed cows wandering the streets freely}. Having decided to return to the hotel and use the restaurant there we found one attached to the hotel and had a wonderful meal of Dosai (a southern Indian specialty that Maria has been looking forward to), and even enjoyed a couple of India sweets we've never tried before.

As on a number of previous occasions we got speaking to the waiter and when he learnt that we were aussies the conversation moved inevitably to cricket - "Ricky Ponting" {always mentioned first}, the recent results, etc. There is cricket on TV here all the time - several channels. As examples, when we were in the reception area at Sunder Palace (our Jaipur accomodation) the receiptionists would be watching cricket; when at thr Ganesh restaurant the chef in this tiny hole-in-the-wall (really room-on-the-roof) restaurant was watching cricket, etc.

Time to sign off. By the way, the title of this post is a Bollywood film I watched on the flight today. Despite it being silly nonsense {was set in Australia and a rip-off of the Jackie Chan flick Miracle, which in turn is a rip-off of ...}, it was really funny and I recommend it for some light fun.

9/2 Hurry-up-to-wait

I'm sitting here in the airport, "stealing" a wireless connection while we wait for our flight (I'd pulled the laptop out to find the address of our hotel in Bangalore after learning via Fiona's SMS that the hotel was not going to provide pickup for us as arranged). Yes, today is the day we say a sad farewell to Jaipur and head to Bangalore (ahh real work looms large).

So far our flight has been delayed twice and given we can't see it on the tarmack, I suspect it won't be the last time. {We are looking right out on the runways and the previous jumbo virtually drove right up to the door - talk about service!!}

This morning we again enjoyed a wonderful fresh breakfast on the roof of Sunder Palace at their small and intimate garden restaurant. Muesili, tast and bannana shake for me, cornflakes with bananna and curd {yogurt}, bananna lassi, lemon-ginger chai for Maria.

However the harmony of the morning went out the window as- after turning up at reception at a reasonable time to finalise the bill and order a taxi we learnt that we would be cutting it fine. It didn't help that the taxi took a long (well, its all subjective) time to come. We (I) almost left the damned poster cylinder (that we've been carting all over the globe and India) at the entrance to the airport. That was interesting also - a porter whipped over and led us through the various checkin and bag drop procedures - quite different to oz (e.g., the airlines have a counter on the exterior and interior of the airport, and you bring your {checkin} bags to the security section, they process them including wrapping them in a kind of string, then you get them and take them over to your airline).

We've just spoken (chat - not voice) to a few friends back in oz, but unluckily the kids and mum don't appear to be home currently.

Not much else to say currently - all airports are alike - though this Indi-pop thats playing in the background is far too boppy (and loud) to qualify as the type of "elevator muzak" that we'd normally find at home under the same circumstances.

8/2 - Sad Zoos, More Shopping, Great Evening Dining

Just a placeholder:
* To the Jaipur zoo with Sameer and family
- Lots of school children get joy from waving/saying hello to us.
- Maria gets the Bollywood star treatment as people want their photos taken with her.
- Zoo in a sad state.
* Back to the bazaars again??
- Further shopping is done.
- We say goodbye to Sameer and family.
- Maria gets her hands Henna-ed (just 50 rupee!)
- Maria starts to get into bargaining with the shop keeper "Hey, this is fun!"
- Dining at the Ganesh restaurant on top of the old city walls for a late lunch
* Great evening dining on top of the Prime Park hotel

7/2 - Forts, Palaces and Day Tours

Morning arrangements
Some other foreigners
The way Maharajas lived (palaces)
Meeting the two foreigners
Forts & floating castles
Amber fort and jeep rides (and a 5-star dunnie)
Maria and her shopping
Dinner with Daz

6/2 Part 4 – Chokhi Dhani - Rajastan Fairyland

Being Sameer’s parent’s 35th wedding anniversary, Sameer and Hanah could not join us for dinner. Rather, they suggested that we take the car and got to Chokhi Dhani.

Chokhi Dhani is a sprawling “recreation” of Rajastan “village” life from the past. Think of a kind of theme park through which you wander from pavilion to pavilion and whre you are also able to have traditional Rajastani fare. Illuminated at each pavilion (in some cases by natural fires) its almost a fairyland or carnival atmosphere.

For the 300 rupee price of entry we were not only fed but watched tight-rope walkers, magicians (I still don’t know how he pulled 3 doves out of that small wicker basket), contortionists, traditional dancers, had an awesome massage (20 rupee), and even had an elephant ride (20 rupee)!!

I can’t convey what a magical time we had strolling about the area at our own pace, stopping to view or do whatever took our fancy. There were even a few shops selling traditional items and Maria was happy to find some traditional Jaipur bangles for 10 rupees each.

With the driver having to be released by 10pm we eventually and reluctantly said goodbye to Chokhi Dhani and made our way back to our hotel – tired but very, very happy.

6/2 Part 3 – Old Jaipur Shopping

At 2pm we had another great surprise – Sameer was not alone but accompanied by his wife Hanah and cute-as-a-button daughter. The plan was to head into the Old Jaipur part of the city, with all the bazaars, and do some shopping. Sameer and Hanah’s local knowledge (having both grown up in Jaipur) and bargaining power would be great assets – and so it proved to be.

Despite the bazaar consisting of some 2,000-odd shops spread through a lattice of streets I’d guess we only passed about 50 or so in an hour or two. Slow to start, Maria really got into her element in the fabric shops, where – with Hanah’s assistance - she was picking and choosing. The bargaining was done by Hanah and Sameer and for this we were very thankful – our experiences with Delhi sharks had (temporarily at least) left us with a very jaded view of the bargaining approach to purchases.

After an hour or two of shopping we dropped into a famous local bakery/sweet-shop for a refreshing (but ohh so filling) sweet that Sameer had recommended (very unusual flavours – several savoury {deep fried?} balls covered by a sweet milky-like sauce.

Then it was back into the car with Sameer and Hanah directing the driver about the city and pointing out various landmarks and other features. It was really nice, not only to get a better sense of the city; but simply to be able to chat together as we drove around. One highlight of this part of the day was that we visiting the famous/large Jain temple around dusk and hence were able to witness (standing inside the temple with the worshippers) the end of day ritual. There was a real frission of excitement as the curtains covering the alter area were suddenly pulled back. The repetitive symbal clashing and bells interweaving together in and out of (from a western ear’s) harmony was really evocative.

6/2 Part 2 – Into Jaipur

What a wonderful treat it was getting to Jaipur (only an hour late) – fresh air, vistas! … and even better, there was Sameer waiting for us, warm and so friendly. He whisked us out of the station, into the airconditioned car and before we knew it we were at our hotel – Sunder Palace.

Sunder Palace is a great place – the staff are warm and friendly, there is a lovely smell of incense, and our room is large and beautiful.

After a shower for Maria we were up to the rooftop restaurant for some lunch (lovely) and then ready for our 2pm pickup by Sameer.
Maria could not stop repeating what a great place this (all of Jaipur) was, and how different it was to Delhi. Things were finally looking up.

6/2 Part 1: 4 Rats, 3 Police Escorts, 2 Little Rabbits, and 1 Fake Policeman

The 6th was our day for moving from Delhi to Jaipur. The trip was by train – the Shatabdi Express, leaving New Delhi station at 6am. Due to various factors this required us rising before 4am, with the train trip expected to take nearly 5 hours.

New Delhi train station at 5am in the morning is a dark and unsavoury place. We were dropped out front in the dirt carpark by our taxi. Despite being 5am there are a lot of people about, some of them of very dubious character. People insist on carrying your bags, which train are you catching, come with me - I know the way. There is no signage visible (i.e., what platform does my train leave from), and no visible authority figures or employees. Further, there are several entrances which lead to different tracks or part of the station. So we had several false starts.

Entering one part of the station, I had one fellow demand that I show him my ticket. When I asked for an explanation he said he was the police. When I asked for proof he continued to attempt to bluff and demand to see the ticket. No way. Eventually we found a ticket counter and upon asking discovered which track, and hence which entrance to use.

Getting to the platform there was still adventure in store for us. Immediately at the bottom of the stairs we found 4 gentlemen – two with weapons (full length double barrel shotguns seem to be favoured here by guards) and two chained together by manacles at the wrist by a 2-3 metre length chain. A moment’s thought showed that it was a criminal being escorted/extradited by three cops. Hmmm, lets move along the platform a bit more…

Eventually we worked out where our carriage would be on the platform and moved to there. That’s when we met our 4 rats – 2 of human kind and 2 of the furry kind. I noticed one, then a second, young boy (maybe 10-12), somewhat scruffy of appearance, hovering off/behind my right-hand shoulder about 5 metres away. I experimented a bit (turned towards, and away from them; moved away a bit), and it was clear they were focussed on us. At this time we also met the furry rats – one big rat scuttled up a stanchion nearby; then another rat ran across in front of me and into the lee of my bag sitting right in front of me. The 2 pickpockets realised we were “wise” to them – one came over and spoke to me [in Hindi] for about 30 seconds…maybe a last attempt to distract me? – before they wandered off behind us.

We were very glad when the train finally pulled in (though paranoid that we would be pickpocketed or something{what…I don’t really know}) in the bustle to get on. Still, there were no problems and with about 5 minutes’ work we were installed with our luggage firmly padlocked to the racks above our head.

Maria’s summary of the train is quite apt. The Shatabdi Express is one of the top trains on the India rail system – air condition seat coaches and fast…thank goodness we didn’t encounter a 3rd class crappy train! The interior was quite drab and dirty, and the ride turned out to be much longer (and eventually hotter) than expected. On the other hand we were served a hot breakfast (choice of veg, non-veg), a choice of the day’s papers [All this for the price of under 1,000 rupees for the pair of us].

5/2 - Old Delhi, Same Old Problems

Our last day in Delhi, we decided to visit the major area we had yet to see, that being Old Delhi. Old Delhi has attractions such as the Red Fort and Jama Masjid (India’s largest mosque). So we hired a driver for half-a-day through the B&B and off we went.

Old Delhi is a densely packed area so our driver could not take us directly to Lahore Gate (entrance to the Red Fort). Rather he parked a km or 2 away and we were approaching by a rickshaw (as in pedal, not auto) who said he would be our guide and take us around where we wanted to go (150/hr – quite a ripoff really, but such insight comes with time). And off we went, his legs pumping slowly but strongly, through the heavier and faster traffic.

Red Fort was our first destination and it is really worth the visit. Not only is it grand in size and architecture, it is a relatively quiet oasis from all the street noise and chaos, never mind the touts, beggars, and other demanders of your time, attention, and rupees.

After an hour or so we went back out to our driver – who had waited outside for us – and then it was into the true Old Delhi markets area. Imagine very narrow “streets” (laneways) lined with small shops on each side. With each street or collection of streets being dedicated to an different enterprise – silver, wedding materials, cloth, etc. It was a strange experience being riden through this area – a very congested place – with the rickshaw occupying over half the width of the lane … yet we were able to make continuous steady progress.

Unfortunately the trip soured somewhat then. Unsolicited the rider/driver took us to a Jain temple, which had a bit of a seedy feel in that we were ushered around, told to sit here etc. when we had no idea of what was really going on. After a long spiel we were hit up for donations. Maria in particular was very uncomfortable and angry, so we cut the rest of the trip through the bazaar/markets (much to the surprise/chagrin of the driver who was probably counting on leading us to other businesses with whom he was in cahoots) and went straight to Jama Masjid. Having “foolishly” worn shorts that day I was reduced to the indignity (at least that’s what many of the residents of the courtyard inside the mosque appeared to think based on their expressions) of being required to wear a kind of skirt to cover my legs. Our ill-will over the rapacious nature of those we were seeing was heightened by demands for tips for the skirt and having “minded” our shoes (just left outside).
Enough was enough. We had the rickshaw driver take us back to the car, paid him off, and then had the car driver take us the Defence Colony Markets (relatively near our hotel) so we could have a late lunch together in a more quiet environment. This was a good move and we strolled the area and did a bit of shopping afterwards – feeling like we were back in control. Then an auto-rickshaw ride back to K-1-1 and our farewell dinner (at the B&B) with Thierry and Christine. Despite the fact of our early departure in the morning we stayed talking late that night on the rooftop garden – it was hard saying goodnight (and a temporary goodbye) to such recent but such good friends.

"Confronting" India

We are finding India very much an "in your face" experience. By this I mean that it really confronts you and causes you to question some of your assumptions and ways of life. I'm not "having a go" here, rather, to understand the experience of visiting India, I believe you must recognise these common themes:
Poverty - This is an omnipresent element, being visible most any place you turn. From roadside shanties, to beggars (e.g., women with little babies) who tap on the window of your car asking for money. It can be very, very distressing.
Dust & Dirt - It is the dry season here and everything seems to be covered in a patina of dust. This also tends to accumulate besides the roads, in front of shops, etc. into piles of dust/dirt that makes for a drab and run-down appearance. This also affects the trees - we'd love to see this place after some rain. Added to this factor is that at various crossroads, corners, etc. there are seemingly "small rubbish dumps" with household waste and debris lying about in the open, or in the open drains.
Traffic Snarl - The traffic here simply must be experienced to be believed. I'm going to write on this separately as it is such a fascinating phenomenon - the absolute chaos as vehicles and pedestrians of all types seemingly follow their own plans, directions, and rules, yet all safely (?) achieve their goals. I consider myself quite a decent driver, but I would not consider driving here at all unless it was an emergency.

Early to Agra

Its just after 6am here and our car is waiting outside for our 4 hour trip to Agra.

Not a good night sleep last night either unfortunately as they are doing major road construction work about 200 metres away which involves the periodic (maybe once every 3 minutes) pile driving of massive steel stanchons into the ground.

Kristine has just been in and told us she has had a cold shower (you need to turn on the hot water heater 30 minutes before you want a shower), and that they got maybe 1-hour of sleep last night.

Time to go...depending on how tired we are we we return I'll provide an update.

Its now after 11pm, and we're back. I've also inserted a couple of images as teasers: The Taj Mahal really is something that must be seen; the drive to and from Agra (4 hours plus or minus each way) was almost harrowing in is intensity and in what you see out the car window; we (all four of us) felt like "marks" - everyone trying to touch-us-up for cash; Maria and I took another couple of auto rickshaw trips at the end of the day to go and get dinner (due to confusion in pronunciation it was longer than expected taking us to "Friends Markets" rathr than the much nearer "Defence Colony Markets").

3/2 - New Friends, Shopping, & Changing Perspectives

This is just a placeholder, assuming I muster enough energy to fill out this entry at a later date.

Its currently 6:30pm here (midnight in oz - which is what it still feels to me). Today we
* Arose late (after being awake at 4am and finally getting back to sleep).
* Got to speak to the kids (using skype - wonderful tool) after their first day at school.
* Met some new friends in Thierry& Christine from France.
* Planned our trip to Agra tomorrow.
* Took a ride by auto rickshaw to the Defence Market area nearby and did some minor shopping.
* With Thierry & Christine went off to do some tourist shopping and also have a nice but very late lunch.

We're planning to go out for a drink somewhat later - lets see if that happens. {Back again 3 hours later}. Drinks didn't happen; we had long chats on taxes, lifelong learning, poverty, etc. on the roof garden with Kristine & Thierry in the nightime fog and surrounded by the (not so) distant sound of Delhi traffic (i.e., near incessant horns).

A Quiet Evening at Home

Given the length of the day, we diced not to be adventurous in looking for dinner, bur rather ask K-1-1 to prepare it for us. This was a great choice because not only was the food delicious, but also because I feel asleep an hour or two before dinner (it was at 8pm).

Its now 9:30-ish and quite cold here. Maria is asleep in bed, the small hand-heater has just turned itself off, and I'm about to turn in and hopefully get a good night's sleep (an uncertain prospect as I can hear one of the many stray dogs found on the streets barking, plus a few moments ago some industrial noise). I had intended to provide text for each of those "chapters" from today's adventures but simply find myself too tired. In the meantime you'll have to content yourself with a look at some of the images: A prize from India for whoever comes up with the best story/caption to accompany a picture.

Humayun's Tomb

Lakshmi Narayan Temple & the Street Snake Charmers

New Delhi Train Station & Booking Tickets for Jaipur

K-1-1: An Island of Quiet & Sanity

Passport Dramas

This one should be good for a few laughts for those at home ... though at my expense. Let me set the scene first though, as that adds to the (outside observer's) humour.

The flight from Singapore to Delhi was full, just as for the previous one. We were fortunately able to switch seats with someone so that Maria (who was 1 seat away and across the aisle) was able to sit next to me (we were in the middle row of seats). Eventually I struck up a conversation with the man next to me, clearly of Indian origin: "Is this your first visit to India?" he asked. It emerged that he was Alain (Alaen? - not sure of the spelling), a resident of Florey - thats one suburb away from us in Evatt. Cue Walt Disney's "Its a small world...". Anyway, Alain had lots of useful advice about dos and don'ts, such as what to eat and what not to eat etc. The basic message was "Enjoy yourself, be a little bit vigilant, but not paranoid, and all should be well". No worries I thought/said.

Getting through immigration and customs was not particularly troublesome, though took some time. The next challenge facing us was changing our AU$ to Indian rupees - being a currency controlled by the India government you can't buy it at an oz bank the way you would for most other currencies.

Straight out of the customs gate, there was a small area for car hire, money exchange counters etc., that just before where all the public, drivers, etc. were waiting. Great - they had a Thomas Cook money exchanger two-window counter. The process for money exchange involves the customer handing over their money and passport for verification and records; what you receive back is a transaction record, your Rupees, and your passport. Something went wrong with this last item...

Lets be specific here. You get a *lot* of Rupees for your dollar/yen/pound/whatever. By which I mean part of the money I received was a wad of 100 100-rupee notes that came stapled and taped together. Between getting all these money stowed, having given 2 items, and received two back, being fatigued, and just plain stupid (take your pick and mix); I didn't notice that the passport was not handed back.

Indeed I didn't notice (having stowed everything in my backpack) I didn't have the passport till 10-minutes after we had arrived at K-1-1; so 40-odd minutes after we left the airport. After the initial disbelief it quickly dawned on both of us that the passport must have been left on the photocopier at the money exchanger's. Well, we hoped that.

First thing, lets have K-1-1 phone the money exchanger and get them to check for and hold the passport. Hmmm, afraid thats the wrong number listed on that receipt. Only thing is to go back to the aiport.

So, our journey wasn' really finished - after a 20-30 minute wait Puran our driver was back, and then we drove off to the airport; through much heavier traffic than previously. At the airport we had the mini-drama of convincing two military guards of why we should be allowed into the arrivals area.

Phew, they had my passport and was I relieved? You bet. Then it was another trip back across town, now through the 9am *real* traffic snarl.

Foggy, Smoggy Delhi

We arrived into Delhi quit early in the morning - 5:30 or so. Quite an errie sight as we came down - still swathed in darkness with lights showing vaguely through.

Skipping the customs, immigration etc. stories; I'll fastforward to after our meeting with our wonderful driver Nural. Just getting out to the car in the dirt carpark was an eye-opener of rushing, passing destitutes etc. The air had a petro-chemically smell - Delhi is known for its smog and the served to suspend the pollution.

The drive to K-1-1 took us through areas where continual construction is going on and acquainted us with several features of Indian roads - lanes are notional at best, horns are a vital part of Indian drivership that must be displayed frequently and vociferously, and roads are multi-purpose - pedestrians, carts (animal and human powered) also use the road surface. Ohhh, and backseat seatbets are more than "optional", they didn't even exist (no buckle to clip into) in our car. All in all, a very confrontational introduction to Delhi and India.

A Day of so many Parts

This has been one of those extremely long days the result from timezone differences - you get into the other country in its morning, but at a time thats already well (late) into your second day...then need to stay awake to reset your body-clock. We were aware of this and despite plans to have a quiet and restful day, we ended up with a frenetic day, who's highs and lows included:
* First impressions of India in the fog and industrial pre-dawn smog
* Passport drama
* K-1-1 (our accommodation) - a true haven
* Train ticket bookings
* Sarasvati's temple and Spike meets the cobrahs (and the cobrah charmers)
* The quiet seclusion of Humayun's Tomb

2/2 - Midnight in Changai

Well, here we are in Singapore's international airport: 12:30am local time (3:30am Canberra time).

We have a wait of a couple of hours before our flight to India. We're both feeling quite tired and a sense of dislocation - all these glitzy stores (perfume, duty free, etc. but also an intertainmjent areas that has free XBox360 play, the soccer on TV - Liverpool vs. Chelsea, and free internet) and wide spaces are not something I feel like dealing with at 3am (bodyclock time), nor do they match my expectation ofr what we'll be confronted by when we leave the airport at Delhi.

The flight here was chiefly uneventful. A very full plane with us right in the back row. There was a bit of a "cattle-rush" by the passengers at boarding time, which I found surprising. We'll see how this next leg is.

Well, my brain is too slow to find something interesting to write. Maria is sitting there watching ER! (a show she's never watched - but it has a comfie lounge chair in front), so I might go and grab here and maybe we'll find a quiet part of the airpport to kip temporarily.

1/2 - Pinch and a Punch ...

Yes, we still play that game in the family - "Pinch and a punch for the 1st of the month, No returns!". I'll leave you to imagine the scene of the 5 of us competing in that (and guessing who won).

Speaking of pinching though its the day of our departure - its come around so fast that its almost a dream.

I took Jules for a walk this morning - the last for a few weeks. Its funny how an imminent change in circumstances makes you appreciate things you have. By which I mean the early summer morning was beautiful with dew still on the grass, birds in the trees etc. I'm already missing our kids.

There's still things to do today, though fortunately we both packed last night and made a pleasant discovery that we didn't need as much baggage (luggage) as we expected. Coming back though may be a different story...