To paraphrase Robbie Burns – the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry…. Due to the older 2 girls doing their Junior Open Water Scuba course, we decided to leave our beloved Cavelossim Beach and head down to Palolem Beach so they would be closer to the pool for their pool dives. It would also be closer for their mandatory 2 shore dives (confined water dives). Also we were going to go dive at Netrani Island for their 2 Open Water dives and departure from Palolem was 5 am, so departure from Cavelossim was going to be …
Category: General
Open Water Junior Dive Course
While we had the time the older two girls thought it would be good to do the Open Water Junior Dive Course. In our area of southern Goa there was only one dive shop. I also contacted the 2 Dive shops in northern Goa but they showed minimal interest. Shanti Divers in Canacona replied with an extensive response and showed lots of interest. So we met with Gabor and the girls began their course thru Scuba Schools International (SSI). MC is a PADI Rescue Diver and I am a PADI Divemaster so SSI was pretty new to us…and we were …
Jaisalmer – The Golden City
Jaisamler is the Golden City because everything is made of sandstone and the desert sun makes it shine Golden. We are in the Thar desert which is the 18th largest desert in the world, 9th largest subtropical desert. It is the most populated desert in the world and the least populated part of India – funny! 40% of the Rajasthan population live here. It makes a natural border between The nuclear armed enemies of India and Pakistan. Everywhere was military bases and personnel. India has twice the military size of Pakistan but nukes even it up as both have between …
Jodhpur – The Blue City
Jodhpur is known as the Blue City….and I had just thought it was named after funny looking trousers. It was also beginning g to seem that every city in Rajasthan was “The City of……”. It wasn’t until we got up above the city in the fort ( yes kids we are off to see another fort/palace..), that we saw why…. While in Jodhpur we saw the Jaswant Thada – a memorial to a whole bunch of maharajahs. Our guide was great – he pointed out that almost all the faces were painted the same they just changed the crazy Rajasthani mustaches …
Pushkar – The Holy City
With M.C feeling a little better we pushed on to the Holy City of Pushkar….upon arrival it was clear the kids needed a break so we stayed at the hotel/pool while Marie-Christine went to see the holy lake. It was a nice break and the kids needed up in photos with some selfie-obsessed Indian lady. Good times.
Jaipur – The Pink City
Health improving we moved on to the capital of Rajasthan – Jaipur – the Pink city. We learned quickly that ‘pur’ Means city and the first part is the name of the dude who founded the city, in this case Jai Singh. In 1876 the Prince of Wales (later Edward VI) visited and the city was painted pink. Why? I do t know. The Main Street of the old city is still super pink. Did I say ‘health improving’? By lunch M.C. was in a bad way and returned to the hotel. Delhi- belly was taking over with the oldies. The …
Agra
We decided to get a driver and leave Delhi to see the beautiful state of Rajasthan but the first stop was Agra in Uttar Pradesh state. Agra is most famous for the Taj Mahal one of the new seven wonders of the modern world. On this trip alone we might see three or four of these – https://www.travelchannel.com/interests/outdoors-and-adventure/articles/new-seven-wonders-of-the-world Agra It seems every Indian city has a fort but in Agra the most famous structures are the Taj Mahal and the ‘baby’ Taj Mahal. We checked out the baby first, the fort then the back of the Taj Mahal as it …
Delhi by tuk tuk
As we are on a budget, and nothing says excitement more than Delhi streets in a tuk tuk, we decided to see some sights in 2 tuk tuks! For anyone who says th traffic and driving in their city is terrible and scary….No! Even Vietnam pales in comparison, and yet tuk tuks are everywhere, jamming themselves between trucks, cars, bicycles and other tuk tuks. On our first morning in Delhi I met Ravi the tuk tuk driver. He asked where we were going and we were off to the Uzbek embassy by Uber. An hour later he randomly showed up …
Updated travel map
Here”S the latest map – where we have been and where we are going (till end of September). In the interim, trying to figure out why our map is not updating directly on our blog. All fun and games… sort of!
Taj Mahal
😋After the 🕌Taj Mahal🕌, we had some🍦 ice-cream🍦. I chose vanilla, Skye chose mango, Kaia chose butterscotch and our guide Imran chose chocolate. We were waking back to the car and there was a little 🐒monkey 🐒about to take my ice-cream à bigger🐒 monkey🐒 came and scared the other🐒 monkey 🐒and tried take my ice-cream and Mum pushed the monkey with her foot so I could finish my🍦 ice-cream🍦.😋
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