Feb 28: repercussions of a dubious lunch

Our fears confirmed, that lunch yesterday had repercussions on Alans tummy!  

Alan dozed most of the day.  Not a bad place to hole up though.  Obviously fit for royalty because I dined at breakfast at the table next to the Duke of Wellington!  Interesting ... the waiter donned white gloves to serve him!  I'll know in future how to recognize royalty in a restaurant!  (Cos I wouldn't have known him otherwise)

Our balcony has a swing where we can sit and watch croquet on the lawn!

And when you're sick red roses are sent to your room!

Alan only rated a measly 5 stems ... Terry had 14 sent to him!!!

Feb 27: 3am pick up!

3 am pick up, that meant 2am wake up call.  We actually managed a few hours sleep, but oh boy, did we feel groggy for the rest of the day!  Even then, because of all the security procedures we had to run to catch the final call for our 5.15am flight!

It was only a one hour flight, and by 8am we were being picked up from the hotel for the tour for the day: Ellora Caves, carved over a couple of centuries between the 9th and 11th centuries I think.  Pretty impressive.  The centerpiece is the worlds largest monolithic sculpture, carved from the.top down.

Mind, there's only so much "culture" you can absorb in 38 degree heat.  When our guide suggested lunch and a cool drink somewhere we sighed with relief with visions of a nice long cold beer and a light lunch in air conditioned comfort.  What we actually had was a vegetarian cafe on the tourist strip with plastic table tops, overworked ceiling fans and toilets with a rating of 2.  

Oh dear ... is this a good idea?

Still feeling hot and tired after our 2am start, we are treated to one more sight:  a mini Taj Mahal: a mausoleum for the wife of the grandson of Emperor Shah Jahan who built the Taj Mahal.  Much was made of plaster and was crumbling.  I'm afraid we couldn't appreciate it in the extreme heat of the middle of the day.  We also felt a little uncomfortable being somewhere off the beaten track for tourists and were openly stared at!

Some of the local tourists made interesting pictures though.

Again we were asked if they could take photos of us, and I took one in return.  Try as I might I couldn't get them to smile: this was serious business!

We return to the hotel absolutely knackered to crash out on the bed.  After a decent siesta we headed for the bar for that longed for beer.  It was goooood!!

As we pass through the lobby on the way back to our room one of the staff proudly informed us that British royalty was checking in: the Duke of Wellington.  Not that I would know him from a bar of soap!

Back in our room we find that the pile of dirty washing we left strewn over the couch had all been neatly folded, included dirty socks!!  And proudly sitting on the coffee table was an elephant elaborately created from towels!

Oh dear how embarrassing!  We'll have to behave in a more royal fashion from now on!

Feb 26: Elephant Island caves

We had a 1 hour ferry ride to Elephant Island and by the time we arrived Terry could barely walk he was so ill.  We needed to climb 120 steps to the caves so we parked Terry in a cafe close to a toilet block while the rest of us continued on.  What rotten luck for him to be struck by the dreaded tummy problem.

Can't say the effort was worth it.  There's only so much you can take in of looking at ancient sculptures.  We enjoy the people watching as much as anything else.

The ferry departs from the famous India Gate.  It looks so much smaller in real life!

An old ferry lies to rest on the foreshore of Elephant Island.

Terry's recovery was slow so the decision was made that Julie and Terry remain in Mumbai while we continued to Aurangabad.  We'll meet up with them against Mumbai airport before traveling on to Cochin.

Feb 25: Flight to Mumbai

We didn't leave our gorgeous Haveli until 11am so we enjoyed the luxury of a slow breakfast complete with champagne - basking in the pretty grounds of the Haveli with its dahlia lined footpaths, decorative fountained courtyard and entrance lounge bedecked with floral murals after the style of the palace we had seen the previous day.

Arrival in Mumbai:  no views as such from the plane: too much pollution.  But it is a fantastic modern airport and WONDERFUL toilets.  The 4 of us have been rating toilets along our travels using our first pit stop as a yardstick 10 out of 10. (Which equates to a below average public toilet in Australia).  Most we encounter outside of our hotels have been in the 5 to 9 range.  We usually try to avoid anything that hints at a below 5 rating.  Mumbai airport rates at 20 out of 10!

Mumbai has 20 million people not counting most of the suburbs, so they have become experts at organizing hoards of people.  But when it comes down to 4 people it seems problematic for them.  We were met by one of our Enchanting Travels rep. Who then handed us over to a non-English speaking driver after being told by the rep that we would be having a quick city tour before checking into our hotel.  Our guide would meet us "at the laundry". Did we hear right?

Well, yes.  We were taking photos at The Laundry when she tapped us on the shoulder and introduced herself!!

The laundry has 10,000 employees who hand wash everything.  They pick up from hotels, apartment blocks, schools etc then "beat the living daylights" out of the clothes (her words) and return the huge bundles of laundry on their heads, on bicycles, tuk tuk or truck.

Note how it's all sorted by size, shape and colour.  It was gone 5pm and the laundry was still in full swing.

We were driven slowly around the city sights in heavy traffic.  What we saw was a modern busy city with a strong presence of old colonial buildings, the occasional Art Deco facade plus lots of rectangular apartment blocks with tiny balconies that looked neglected, but we were assured this was an affluent middle class area.

We drove past small parks for children, the Lawn Tennis Club and one massive field dedicated to cricket games.  So many people and pitches that some people were fielding for 2 adjacent games!

Any guide, driver, waiter, every man on the street know the names of all our cricket stars past and present!  Bit of a problem at the moment as we're slaughtering them in the first Test.  They laugh though.

By 6.30 we are at our hotel having dropped off the guide at her home along the way.  We were on our own - no travel agent to help with check in or discuss plans for the next couple of days - not good considering what was to happen over the next 2 days.

We're in a modern 5 star hotel , The Trident where food is very expensive so we took the recommendation of our guide for a good local restaurant.

And so it was, a family restaurant, and we chose the recommended mixture platter, a Thalia I think it was called.  A metal tray containing a variety of curries, pickles, chutneys with dollops of rice and fresh roti.  Problem was they kept topping up our bowls as we ate so we lost track of how much we were eating!  We were totally bloated, and all for about 500 rupees each - $10.

Next morning Julie and Terry had slight tummy upsets, after dosing up with the trusty Imodium Julie improved, but as the day progressed Terry got much worse.

Feb 24: Jaipur Fort and Palace

Full day out exploring Jaipur Fort and Palace. A bit of a drive around the city sights including the Palace of winds.  Traffic is pretty hectic due to a new Metro station being built near the old city.  Julie wanted to do some shopping so were taken to a Jewelry store where I bought my India Black star ring then got carried away to get matching earrings.  Alan also treated me to a sapphire ring for my birthday.  Rajasthan is renowned for its semi precious stones.  We were then swept away to a textile store - the guides often earn commission on these stops, so we made it worth his while.  Still, this gets shopping out of the way all in one major hit.  Don't think we had better mention the word "shops" again this holiday!  It's getting to be an expensive exercise now the government is slapping on all sorts of taxes.

Elephant ride in the evening at dusk.  We were served food under the stars around a fire cos it was a bit chilly by then.  Main course was a buffet under a thatched awning.  Quite amazed that this exotic location existed out in rural fields outside the city boundary.

The elephants are rescued city elephants.  We saw many elephants in the city doing tourist rides over paved roads.  Not only are they a long way from their natural habitat of southern India, the climate is even too dry fro them to reproduce.  These city elephants usually never leave the city streets and are never rested.  We never saw any of the highly jeweled depicted on the postcards!

Feb 23: drive to Jaipur

After our early start end exciting safari, we take the 4 hour to Jaipur.  Roads not too bad and boring countryside, so we manage naps.

Now India gives us another taste of the exotic: we're staying in a converted 300 year old Haveli.  We have our own little ground floor suite with its own little private courtyard.  We finish our busy day with a swim, the first of the holiday.

Rather like this place:

This is the courtyard just inside the main door - not our private one!

The main lounge.