Benaulim, Goa, India

You'll be glad to hear that luckily the tablets had worked well for
the journey, because if you ever get chance to see the loos on the
trains in India, you wouldn't want to wish your worst enemy to have
diarrhoea on them. Let's just say they are squat toilets!

Sorry back to more pleasant thoughts, we arrived at Goa late and
shared a taxi with a couple from Germany.

We had just missed a cyclone in the area, but the weather was still
crazy. One minute it was bone dry, next minute a rain storm had broken
out, maybe an aftermath of the cyclone.

Goa is more expensive than other places in India as it is a package
holiday destination for Europeans. Still we managed to find a nice
guesthouse, Shalom Guesthouse.

The journey was pretty long so we chilled out for the 1st day. The
beach is really clean, esp for Indian standards.

There were lots of European tourists here, much more than we had seen
anywhere else in one place in India apart from the Taj Mahal.

As it is so much further south, it's pretty hot & humid here but they
say this is unusual due to the recent cyclone. We enjoy our time of
chilling out, esp after our recent illnesses!

We even get involved in a time share day where they try to sell us
holidays here and around the world. It looks reasonable on paper, esp
as we take so many holidays, but my good maths & knowledge we weren't
going to do it anyway. Still it was interesting hearing the concept
all the same.

The final day was spent again at the beach and watching the amazing
sunsets from here. We also loved the cute starfish that came out of
the sand at sunset, esp the ones that seemed to be holding hands, cute!

We spent 3 very pleasant days here relaxing, the south is so much more
pleasant pace of life compared to the hectic and hassled north!

Next stop Palolem, Goa, Paradise Beach!

Daman, Gujarat, India

We got the overnight train from Kota to Vapi, so we're becoming
seasoned experts the train system here now! 18hrs later we arrive in
Vapi (according to the Rough Guide, one of the top ten most polluted
cities in the world, what a claim to fame!)

Well it didn't seem that bad when we arrived! We then got our shared
taxi (5 to the back seat!) to Daman, apparently according to the
tourist office a "mini Goa". Now I can tell you, now that we're in Goa
to compare, that this place has nothing on Goa and I have no idea how
they can claim that! It was occupied by the Portugese for most of its
history, so has catholic churches (80ish% of indians are hindu, 13%
muslim 5% Sikhs & about 2% catholic) and 2 forts to defend the the
town! The beach here is dirty & dark so has no features to justify a
visit here (so luckily we only planned 1 day to visit here on the way
to Goa); which is just as well due to the following.......

Unfortunately we had been told by someone that the drinking water taps
at the railway stations were fine to drink. Oh dear! Our bowels
didn't forgive us for that mistake! James was sick for a few days and
Mariana was initially better but then got it too! Not good that we had
to go on another 18 hr train journey that day. However luckily James
had his emergency supply of Loperamide, to let's just say block the
pipes!

With trepidation we made another overnight train journey from Vapi to
the Bollywood capital, Mumbai. However it was only to change trains to
continue to Goa, for another 12 hr journey!

Bundi, Rajasthan, India

So we had a reasonable trip to Bundi by our sleeper bus! Yes it was a
double sleeper but wasn't as good as the Jaisalmer to Udaipur bus as
we didn't have our own cocoon so we had to keep a closer eye on our
bags. Also the bus was due in at 5am (before sunrise) but as all
Indian bus drivers seem to drive like a khamkazhi drivers we got their
early at around 4am! We had to almost be chucked off the bus as we had
just woken up and they were only prepared to wait their for a minute.
They were slowly driving out of town as we were trying to gather our
things, so they didn't waste any time!

So it's not easy to find accommodation in any place at 4am, but
especially in a little town in India! Luckily, as always the was a
handy rikshaw driver to take us anywhere we want anytime of the day!
They also make so much commission from hotel owners (added to our bill
secretly, I would like to add!), that they love it when the confused
and dazed tourists that we were at that time in the morning, turn up!

So as everywhere seemed closed apart from one hotel owner came out
just as we arrived, strange that at 4am!
Prince Haveli our home for that night wasn't that nice either but we
had little choice at that time. They weren't the friendliest of
management when they heard we only wanted to stay one night! Mainly as
our room was right next to reception & many people arrived late at
night and so was noisy!

So our next home was Raj Mahal Guest House, just down the road from
Prince Haveli so we had to dodge the manager's gaze! This too was
pretty simple but was quieter and the staff seemed friendlier. We
wanted to go to Haveli Rija but the room had become occupied. Too slow!

Bundi is a up & coming tourist resort with an amazing fort (there are
lots in India!) up on the hill. Shockingly, this maharaja palace had
been left derelict to the bats! Luckily it was rented out to a private
company that has slightly restored the place. It's looked like both
the Palace & the fort on the hill were amazing in their day, 400yrs
ago. The fort had become completely abandoned and James went exploring
only to be met by an army of monkeys! Now in the best of times this
may be fun but some mothers were looking after their young so as I
tried to quietly creep walk through them all, some were bearing their
teeth at me. I was sure I was going to get attacked by a rabid monkey!

Bundi otherwise was the home of Rudyard Kipling, when he wrote part of
Jungle Book & Kim in a lovely lake side house to relax in, great
inspiration! I didn't realise but Baloo (which I am sure is a
character in Jungle Book), means Bear in Hindi! Well there you go!

We stayed here for 3 days before moving on ........

Udaipur, India The Romantic City!

We were looking forward to Udaipur as it had been billed as India's
most romantic city!

Well it is a beautiful city due to it's setting next to a lake with a
beautiful lake palace and city palace. This is all surrounded by
mountains in the distance. Nice.

We arrived early after our first trip in a sleeper bus. Yes you can
sleep on board buses over here. There is a second level of the bus
where you can hide away from the world in your own bed. Sounds nice
but actually not as comfortable as sounds when your bus driver is
trying to do a kamkhazi mission; like all drivers do over here. (they
seem incredibly good at driving very fast and very close to other
drivers but not hitting them) Also if every motorbike driver were to
buy a car in India if you think London traffic is bad just think about
over a billion inhabitants!

At 430am your choice of hostel is fairly limited as most are closed.
So we had trouble finding a decent place. Still Sadma Guest House
treated us well for the first night but we quickly found a lovely
little guest house in town which was only a month old! It was called
Udai Haveli Guest House on Ganesh ganj. We had found it by accident
walking around and was too new to be in the guidebooks. (I am now
starting to think guidebook recommended guest houses & hotels can get
a little complacent with their endless supply of new guests) Wow clean
& new pillows & mattresses. At times in the bathroom; it was so new we
thought we were at home! A revelation in India, so decided this would
be our new home for as long as we stayed here. (7 days)

We visited the Palace, home to what is believed to be the longest
running Royal Family (however now they have no power in democratic
India). It is a beautiful palace on a hill above the lake looking over
to the Lake Palace with some amazing pictures and treasures, some of
which are away at an exhibition on India in London!

We also went up the cable car here (63 rupees) to see the sunset which
was beautiful as it looked out over the city, the palace, the lake
palaces and the mountains beyond! We then watched as all the lights
came on over the city. Very romantic.

Over the next few days we chilled out and did some shopping, ate out
and even managed to get to see Octopussy! I was very happy and Mariana
wasn't too upset either! It's surprising how much of the movie is
filmed here and we went oh look that such and such!

Next day we did our good deed for the trip and helped out at a local
animal hospital. They looked after dogs, donkeys, and cattle mostly.
It was so sad to see some of them that had been paralysed after being
run over and no one cared. This is the sad part of this country that
there are so many stray dogs and no one seems to care for them. So we
did our bit for the day which was just looking after them, feeding
them or for the donkeys talking to them and giving them a good brush.
I only wished I could have done more but moat of them that could get
better were getting better. The donkeys had been treated badly by
getting them to carry crazy loads on their backs until their legs
litterally buckled under them and sometimes broke! It was so sad, but
also nice to see that at least these animals were being looked after
so well.

We left Udaipur a little sad as we had both really enjoyed this lovely
city on our overnight bus sleeper to Bundi, our next stop. (yes over
here you can have your own separate cabin to sleep in with a double
bed, strange but pretty comfy!)

Camel Desert Safari, Jaisalmer, India

So our adventure began!

2 days into the middle of the desert and almost a little too close to Pakistan! Still it was reassuring hearing the indian fighter jets flying over!

Oh yes I forgot we had met an English couple 2 days earlier  who weren't well enough to take an afternoon safari so kindly gave it to us 30 mins before they were due to leave. (there's a lot to be said about right time, right place)

Back to the 2 day adventure! We left after an unplanned tour round town for our supplies for the trip (I don't remember this being mentioned on our trip itinerary!)

We were all chatting and in high spirits we went straight to the camels 1 hr into the desert by jeep after our late start and met our companions for the next 2 days. The camels were called Buddha (M) & Aloo, meaning potato! (J)

Well the bums soon started hurting but we were finally on our trip. We came across our 1st "gypsy village" we had been promised, which just consisted of a load of local kids running out and asking "you have chocolate..... School pen.... 10 rupees" and generally being abut harassed. Still we managed to get some nice photos. Nice quiet stop for lunch, where we were offered one of the goats playing in front of us for 1000 rupees to go with our vegetarian dinner Even I couldn't cope with eating something that only a few hours before was happily playing. (yes 6 wks in and still haven't eaten any meat and very happy with all this tasty food! Maybe I should become vegetarian!)

Well after we got over that we had a further 3 hrs in the saddle until out lovely sand dune setting for sunset! Nice dinner, chatting with our new found friends and our open air beds for the night under the full moon and stars in the middle of the desert!

Next morning 630am start for sunrise, beautiful and surprisingly cool in the desert! More photos and nice breakfast of banana, apple, orange & papaya with chai & biscuits before another 3 hrs back in the saddle. It surprisingly quite relaxing on top of a camel and they aren't as moody as I was expecting. Still Mariana learned to trot on the camel the hard way and seemed to be more jumping on top of the camel than riding it. I don't think she be winning any camel races for a while! I think in the end she was happy to be back on solid ground. Our bums were a bit sore the next day but not bad really!

Still all in all a great trip, nice scenery, great company and good food!  

Desert Havali Guest House review, Jaisalmer

We weren't going to come here as Mariana thought it was too far to go
but we were both pleasantly surprised we came here!

We met a nice Canadian family on our 5am train (and we're meant to be
on holiday!) They had 2 children aged 11 and 7! They had been
travelling for 3 months so far with stops in Europe, Egypt and now
India! This place is tough enough for us at times so we were intigued
to see how it was with 2 young kids in tow! They said that generally
it had been a good experience and the school had been very supportive
by arranging school work for the kids. They generally tried to stay at
the nicer guest houses. It was interesting to hear of how they were
getting on anyway.

Jaisalmer was also built around a fort along the old silk route. It's
an amazing little place as it's literally built in the middle of
nowhere! Apparently not far here is where India tested it's 1st
nuclear bomb!

This place is in the middle of the Thar Desert with temperatures to
match. It can get up to 50C in the summer!
It's built around the fort on the hill again which makes it look
beautiful. It's strange to see this with a modern wind farm in the
background.

We got roped in to staying a one guest house for the first night as we
couldn't stand all the hotel touts who greeted us at the train station.

Once there we were promptly encouraged to take a desert camel safari:
Him: "you want a receipt now for your camel safari"
Me: "no we have just arrived, thank you"
Hotel owner: " you want a receipt for your camel safari"
Me: "NO! Just let us pay for our room"

And so it went. I think the hotel owners made so much commission from
these trips that this is all they could talk about!

So we decided to find another place and came across a friendly hotel
manager called Muna (meaning boy, alot of kids are never given a name
and often don't know when they were born over here!)

He was a friendly chap who's favourite phrase was "we drink some
chai" (chai for those who don't know is the delicious tea over here
made from spices and full of sugar. Well I thought it was delicious
and so kept getting Mariana's chai!)

We found a great room looking out over the desert from the fort, an
amazing view and place staying in one of the fort buildings itself!

We also decided to go on a camel safari and so began our negotiations
with Muna! Indians can be very clever and when we had agreed to a
price we thought it was the total price but he was quoting us a daily
rate for a 2 day safari. (very crafty!)

Next day we met a lovely couple from Germany & Finland and they wanted
to do the safari too so we managed do some more negotiations which the
others fully got into. This wasn't before Muna hoped to give us a
lower price than our new friends if we kept quiet about the price we
had negotiated! Well in the end we were all happy.

We met another American couple who decided to come on the trip and a
Swiss guy so we were 7 on our 2 day camel safari!

Govind Guest House Review, Jodphur, India

Jodphur was a noisy dirty place on our late arrival by train. As it
was pretty late and it is a big place we decided to stay near the
station. This was a big mistake we were later to find out as it was so
noisy from the busy street.

The only reasonable priced guest house near the station was Govind
Guest House. Unfortunately this was quite a pricey place. We paid for
1 dorm bed the same price as our own room in Pushkar (this was the
only beds available too as it was late!) We found Shiva Guest House
near the fort far more reasonable but still we were close to the
station so it was handy for our 5am! train to Jaisalmer.

The fort in Jodphur is amazingly impressive built on top of a hill and
made from sandstone! It's amazing at sunset esp with the blue houses
of the old city.

We only spent 1 day here as there wasn't that much more to see apart
from the fort and we found it just to be another noisy, busy and
polluted city but with a very nice fort.

Milkman Guest House review, Pushkar, India

Pushkar is our next stop on this journey through this amazing country.

It is home to one of the most holy lakes in India, which has sadly
been drained for cleaning and now the rains haven't returned to refill
it! There seems to be issues with lack of rain here that seem to be
causing problems across the country.

Pushkar is also home to the world famous Camel Fair. Here tens to
hundred of thousands camels are traded over a week and they also put
on special events for the tourists including camel races, Indian
dancing and much more. Unfortunately however this means the
gustehouses and hotels often put their prices up by 5 times normal
prices!

We arrived 5 days before the festival and decided it would be worth
staying for the first 2 days. Unfortunately someone had told us it
would be starting on 25th Oct only to find out on arrival that it was
the 26th! Still Pushkar is a nice place to chill out and seems v
tourist orientated, which after the rest of India can be a nice break
from the full on cities of India (which I personally don't rate much
and would far prefer heading straight away to the towns and villages.)

Our home, Hotel Kuhinoor (owned by White House Guest House) we were
lucky to find. It would charge us it's normal rates for all our stay
including the first night of the camel fair. This was a lucky break as
most hostels we went to asked at least 3 times their normal rate! So
we managed to get an ensuite room which was clean and tidy with fan
for again 100 rupees with some negotiation (as always!)

The first morning of the camel fair we were greeted with some eternal
racket / drone of some religious chant over loud speakers that goes on
forever starting at 630am! What a greeting to wake you up with! I
think I'm glad we're only staying for 1 day of the fair!

This early morning wake up can be quite common in India as a
significant number of people are Muslim and so are called to prayer in
the early morning from the mosques. Always make sure you don't stay
near these unless you want to not sleep from 530am onwards! We have
hear some that have had to put up with this. (This goes too for Hindu
temples during religious festivals!)

We met a great pair of Aussie lads and a Chinese girl whilst were in
Pushkar, and enjoyed our relaxed time in this place away from the
noise of the city!

Next stop Jodhpur by train, a SUPPOSED 6 hr journey (trains in India
are the best way to travel for comfort but are frequently hours late!)

Desert Havali Guest House, Jaisalmer review

Desert Havali Guest House, Jaisalmer review

Well we weren't sure whether we were coming to Jaisalmer but we are
glad when we arrived. Despite it being on the outer most reaches of
India, it is a really nice place with an amazing fort. And we had some
great times with the people we met.

We were acosted as we arrived at the train station with lots of people
trying to sell their hotels with offer of free trip to their hotel;
great considering it was so hot! And it seemed no commission either!

We hadn't thought about doing the safari but every hotel in the town
was very keen on us doing it! We decided to check out the fort and
came across the nice Desert Havali Guest House. Maanu, the manager,
was very kind with free chai tea and we sat chatting. His safari
seemed well recommended in his books and it seemed a great price, only
400 rupees! The rooms at desert havali guest house started from 100
rupees with the usual negotiations of course on the price!

We met a nice couple from Finland and Germany the next day and decided
we would all go on safari, only to find out from Manu it was 400 PER
DAY for 2 days (always check the total price for the safari and that
it's not per day price). A big difference from what we were expecting.
What followed was some tense and long negotiations but we finally came
to an agreement of 650 rupees for 2 day safari if we could find 2
other people.

Next day we were checking out prices at hostels when an English couple
who were sick offered us their afternoon camel safari for free but we
had to go in 30 mins! It was a great afternoon camel safari and met 2
other Brit girls. They paid 550 rupees each just for the afternoon
with nothing like food or drink included!

That evening we were having a nice thali with friends (we met the 2
other americans who were coming on the safari too) when this jeep of
Indians pulls up, next minute they were challenging our friends to an
arm wrestling competition! Very surreal like we were in a dream!

Next day visit to v nice Jain temples 30 rupees each. Finished our
safari negotiations (always make sure you have everything supposedly
included on the trip on your receipt, very important to make sure not
ripped off.)

Following day the desert camel safari 2 day trek began