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 …
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Udaipur – The City Of Lakes
After one easy day/night in Pushkar, it was off to Udaipur, the city of lakes, founded by Udai Singh in the 1500s. Oh yeah – the lakes are man made as the Thar desert isn’t far away….That being said, the lakes are beautiful and our hotel was lit ( this is my 13 y.o word for ‘cool’). There was a corporate event there that night and we ‘shazamed’ some very ‘interesting’ Indian dance music – look out the next t8 e you see me…. The City Palace Started in the 1500s by Udai when Udaipur was the capital city of …
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 …
India
We stayed in a little hotel called the SmyleInn. It was in the middle of a place they call “Main Bazaar”. It was pretty hectic : honking their horns(witch they call “pee pee” and I am not kidding), the sound of motorcycles and the smells. Dad made a friend called Ravi. He brought us around Delhi and showed us some cool stuff. He brought us into a temple and it was so cool because I felt like I was one of them. In the temple they were playing music from old times with the weirdest instruments. This is a picture …
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 …
Delhi
A night or two before flying to Delhi from Kathmandu I read a few blogs about India, it’s scams and in particular the Delhi airport. We had spent over 8 hours collectively working out the e-visa and had a vertitable shit show upon leaving Nepal where they stopped us for not getting ‘stamped in’ when we walked across the Tibet- Nepal border. We barely made the plane for a USD$2 fine for each of us! I was not looking forward to the Delhi experience!
Upon arrival almost everything about Delhi surprised us! Smooth sailing at the airport including the e-visa ( the customs guys were awesome!), and our hostel pick up ( secret password – big mango!). The drive to our hostel was pretty easy and the route was lush with trees and beautiful temples (the Laxmi Narayan in particular). The only thing missing was head wobbles. We knew the backpack area was a little grim but as we wandered down the back alley all we could smell was urine and rubbish accompanied by constant shouts and honking horns. It’s true -India is an assault on all the senses….it took me a day to realise that the wall at the corner was a place for guys to pee…..
Just a bit behind and to Kaia’s left was the pee wall. Note the excellent wiring – power outages were regular. A right turn at the end of this alley it got much darker and there was our hostel…
Paharganj By Night
That night M.C. And I ventured out to the main bazaar of Paharganj. This neighbourhood is the cheap cheap backpacker area and all the neon signs are for cheap hotels. This area is intense at all hours.
Paharganj by Day
One afternoon while everyone was chilling I set out to explore the rest of the Paharganj area. Tons more cheap hotels and more little shops selling the same stuff. Also the everpresent smell of urine, cooking and garbage. Accompanied by flies…always flies. Without the family I still got looks but none approached me to ask where I was from. Perhaps I looked enough the part to get away with maybe being local….
It was gritttier – saw a dog get hit by a motorcycle, a legless man begging in the middle of a 6 lane road, cows everywhere and lots of garbage. Poverty abounded.
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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