31 Degrees and 50% Humidity!!! Help me, I'm melting!!!!!!!!

Well, since last I wrote, we have done nothing that we planned to do!!! But I guess that is what being in India is about?? Yesterday morning, we moved out of the 'damp' Homestay over to a much drier one!!! (our third Homestay since we arrived here four days ago!)
I can't remember how the rest of the day evolved but I vaguely remember spending most of the afternoon at the Travel Agents trying to get an idea on how to spend the next five weeks in Kerala!! Then we actually made it it to the Theatre to watch some Kathakalli!!
It was amazing: traditional Keralan dance/story telling. The first hour was watching the actors (no women on stage!!!) apply their make up, each character has a specific style (reminded me of Comedia Del Arte) and then we were given examples of the different facial expressions/eye movements that mean different things as well as the hand gestures, followed by a short performance of a few scenes from a famous play with a very long name and a very, very, very, very long story!!! (No not the Mahabarata!!)

 

Basically there is the Evil Man who wants to marry the princess, even though she is already married to the Five Princes who incidentally are in exhile!!!! He doesn't seem bothered and tries to seduce her, then tries to 'violate' her, then she runs off and tells her husband (well one of them) who is obviously most displeased and hatches a plan to trick the Evil Man into meeting the Princess in her bedroom and when the Evil Man turns up all excited to see the Princess, he is confronted by the Prince (well one of them) who kills him. Very, very, very slowly! The End!

After dinner - not just ours but the Mosquitoes who had enjoyed feeding off us all night! We went back to our new room, quite pleased that we had managed a good deal and the room was still as dry as it had been before.
Claudine put her ear plugs in, (don't ask) and we both went to sleep, or at least I started to when all of a sudden I could hear a slight rustling on the floor near my back pack. My heart picked up speed as I thought I heard another strange noise, then I screamed and kicked my legs out as I thought I felt something land on my feet.
So much for the ear plugs!!! Claudine was out of her bed and the light was on and we both stood staring at each other as I quietly mumbled: " I thought I felt something on the bed, but it must have been a dream, but can we leave the light on anyway?" We didn't and settled back to sleep, but I was on high alert by this point and could't even close my eyes, my heart was beating so fast I could hear the blood rushing around my head. Then I heard the rustling again and called out to Claudine that I thought it was back.
She switched the light on, again and looked across the room then screamed as she pointed to a great big mouse (or possibly a rat) run across our bags and back into the bathroom!!
Being the true ladies that we are, we both jumped up and down on our respective beds and screamed, but no one came to our rescue!!! So I firmly shut the bathroom door, used my spare sheet to block up the gap under the door and we finally fell asleep with the light on!!
This morning we moved to another Homestay ....
Having checked into our new room and inspected for rodents, damp and Mosquitoes we then ended up spending the whole day over at the travel agents, melting into the chairs there as it was so hot no one could move!!! But we have finally made up our itinerary for the rest of our trip!
Ok the more hard core travellers out there would be screaming at us, saying that this is India and we should just see where we end up, live in the moment blah,blah,blah.....
Whatever! We have tried that but so far it has led close to mental break downs and exhaustion. So, tomorrow we spend the day on the Back waters, then in two days time we are off to a Resort North of here for cookery lessons, yoga and Ayuverdic treatments. From then I hope to be re charged and ready for the next few weeks ...
So until next time, I am off to the Homestay and pray we don't have to move again!!!

I have jiggled my widget!

Ok now I have your attention, I just wanted to let you know that in response to those of you complaining that your comments are not coming up, I have tried to mess around with my settings in the hope that will make a difference. So feel free to give it a go now?!

Apart from that, there's nothing much to say about today, except that it has been raining on and off and our room is so damp that when I woke up this morning, my hair was so frizzy I actually looked like Ronald McDonald!!!

Suffice it to say, we have found somewhere else to stay for the next few days, whilst we plan our time in Kerala. So more to follow on that front.

It has to be said that it is a pleasure to be somewhere where there isn't the constant sound of car horns being blasted or too much cow pat on the street!! (saw my first Keralan cow today!!). It is also great not to be freezing cold as I was in Darjeeling, but it is so hot and humid here, that I feel the need to take a shower even when I am just crossing the road from our hotel to buy a bottle of water!!

Oh and talking about showers ... last night Claudine discovered a cockroach in ours!! I was surprised and extremely impressed with her calmness when she came across it and therefore I felt I had to try to act just as calm and collected as she was. I smiled and nodded at her while we agreed to keep the bathroom door firmly shut for the night and then I calmly walked over to my bed, climbed under my sheet and wretched as quietly as possible!!

I have been promising photos throughout various stages of this blog, but at the moment it seems to be taking forever to upload the pictures. So if anyone has any ideas to help, please free ...

Tomorrow we are moving to our third Homestay in this town!!! Then we are off to 'Jew Town' (no that is not being anti-semetic it is what the area is called!) to see the Old Synagogue there and tomorrow eve we hope to  meet up with some people when we go to see some classic Keralan dancing. So until then, I am off to find some extra strong hair gel!!!

I want my mummy!!

I will never use the phrase 'Things can't get much worse than this" that's just asking for trouble!!! Since my last blog, I have arrived in Kerala, though only just! 

Thursday evening I had an early night assisted by my new friend Night Nurse and went to sleep feeling positive that now I had things under control and was starting to feel a bit better. I was quite excited about getting to Kerala as this was going to be the more spiritual part of my journey.

I managed to sleep through til 4am when my stomach decided it obviously wasn't getting enough attention! On returning from the loo and wondering if this would ever end, (I personally think having an enema is more fun!!), I lay in bed with my head hanging over the side under which I had strategically placed a bucket - just in case! Thank fully it wasn't needed, but by the time we had to get up and finish packing the following morning, I could just about face half a scrambled egg and some ginger tea for breakfast! But there was no backing out now, we had a flight booked to Kerala and we bloody well weren't going to miss it, even if it involved us investing in a bag of Pampers?!

So I took a travel sickness tablet and Suresh drove us to the airport, don't think the tablet really  kicked in til about five minutes before the end of our one hour journey. Then once inside we had to wait for the check in desk to open, because apparently it was too early to turn up two hours before a flight in India!? When finally through we boarded our plane to Dehli!! For those of you that have a rough idea on the layout of this country you won't be blamed for presuming that we were put on the wrong plane, seeing as Dehli is further North than  Udaipur, where as Kerala is down south. But 'this is India' so we just have to 'go with the flow'.

On arrival at Dehli airport we found out that our next flight down to Kerala was going to be delayed by two hours!! I practically crawled into the chemists and begged him to help me out. He was very calm, as I am sure he must see hundreds of tourists a week flying around with stomach problems. He issued me with the statutory anti-biotics that we can only get via prescription in the UK and a tin of protein biscuits and I made my way over to one of the couches, took my medicine and lay down to go to sleep for an hour.

All I can say is, although I didn't manage to sleep, I think I have now overcome my fear of using public toilets!!

Meanwhile, Claudine had got chatting to a Swedish couple sitting nearby and it turned out that the wife was a doctor.  I was over there like a shot!! Too late, Claude had already relinquished the relevant information and is now worried about cross infection should we even share a packet of biscuits! I looked at the doctor as she explained that what either of us could be a number of things, but it will get cleared up, the main thing was to try to eat and drink lots of fluids. That was the last straw for me, I burst out crying, explaining that I had lost my appetite and even water made me feel sick and so I was never going to be cured (ever the drama queen) I told her that if it hadn't cleared up within the next 24 hours I was going to have to go back to the UK but I didn't want my bowels to get the best of me!! The two Swedes looked at me with such pity as I wiped my nose and then I said: 'I just want my mum'. The response from everyone at the table was: "I know, I understand".

Finally I managed to get some vegetable soup down my throat and followed everyone through on to the plane. By this point my head was pounding and I wanted to sleep through the next three hours. But Claudine, bless her, was intent on making me drink more rehydration sachets and eat some food, whilst feeling pretty ropey herself.

The lunch arrived, we peeled back the foil covers, looked down at our food, then in unison we turned to each other and burst out laughing hysterically. More curry!!!! (well I suppose that is to be expected on an Air India flight?!?!)

I could only manage a few grains of rice, while Claude managed most of hers - she has an amazing appetite no matter what. Then the hand gel came out, but she must have squeezed the bottle too hard because a lump of it suddenly flew out of the container and landed splat on the chest of the Indian man sitting next to her! Claudine's immediate reaction was to apologise profusely and try to wipe it off for him. This was a total stranger!! Not only did she end up making the stain worse, (he looked like he had been lactating) but I think she may have overstepped a few Boundaries as far as Indian customs are concerned.

We finally got to Kerala!!

It was raining!!!

We booked a pre-paid taxi to the hotel we had made a reservation with in Fort Cochi - another hours drive - and tried to relax in the car. My head was still killing me and Claude had bad stomach cramps and both were just looking forward to getting to the hotel that had been highly recommended by The Rough Guide and sleeping in til the late hours of today.

As expected, the taxi driver got lost!!! He kept stopping to ask directions and at one point someone got in their car to lead us in the right direction - they got lost too!!! It took us two and a half hours to get to the hotel and when we did it was a bit of a .... flea pit. (and that's me using polite language). We had to ask for bed linen and towels, there was no loo paper (thanks again Melanie, Sara and Jess for confiscating my 'extra supply' back in London) and breakfast was not included!!! When I had made the booking originally the woman had assured me everything was included in the price.

Finally we managed to crawl into our rather uncomfortable twin beds at around 2 30am, both agreeing that we would find somewhere else the following morning.

I passed out and fell into a deep sleep only to be woken up about an hour later by Claudine shouting and jumping out of bed because she said there was a rodent walking over her belly!!

I searched the room, but could find no evidence and managed to calm her down again then went to sleep ...

Early this morning, Claude had found another hotel for us to move to and we were out!!!

I have to say, I was very close to flying back home this morning, the last few days have been a bit too much of the India Experience. And if it wasn't for the fact that I am starting to feel better today, then this would have been my last blog entry ...

We found a really lovely cafe for lunch, where they served FRESH FISH!! Red Snapper that when ordered the waiter biked over to the local fish market to get. I was so looking forward to having fish and steamed veg!!

We sat and waited in anticipation and then waiter turned up with our lunch and placed it on the table in front of us, smiled and walked back to the kitchen. I took one look at my plate then turned to Claude in horror - they had left the head and tail on!!! I immediately started wretching!! (pathetic I know) and rushed the plate back to the waiter, asking if they could cut off the head and tail. He smiled and nodded, then a couple of minutes later returned with the plate and yes he had cut the aforementioned body parts off, but bloody left them on the plate!! I managed to flick them off onto the saucer next to me and Claude hastily put it on the table behind out of sight! Talk about taking things literally!

Then this evening we found another restaurant for dinner. I decided to stick with pasta, as there would be no heads or tails to deal with!! Claude ordered Chicken Shish, demanding it be cooked thoroughly. The waiter seemed confused but disappeared into the kitchen.

The food arrived, it looked very appealing. Mine was perfect, but as Claude bit into one of her chicken cubes and swallowed, the blood drained from her face as she cut into another piece put it on her side plate and showed it to me explaining that she thought it was still a bit raw. I have to admit there was a bit of it that did seem under cooked, so she called the waiter back over and expressed her worries and asked if he could have it cooked a bit more. The waiter nodded and picked up the side plate with the lonesome bit of chicken on it and started to make his way towards the kitchen, we both had to call out to him and explain that she meant the whole kebab!?!?

So on that note I am signing of for today, my dinner is still inside me, which can only be a good sign. And I shall return to the new hotel that Claudine found for us this morning, which incidentally we realise is riddled with damp so will be moving again tomorrow!! That is providing the morsel of chicken that Claude ate doesn't give her food poisoning!!!

Strike Back 2 - Project Immodium!

"Cert 18 - The following Blog contains scenes that some readers may find offensive and could be upsetting for small children".

Ok where to start? I guess as the talented Maria Von Trapp would say, "Let's start at the very beginning, it's a very good place to start". Hmmm, so I will pick up where I last left off; the internet cafe in lovely peaceful Pushka ...

Claude and I had finished our blogging and were trying to find somewhere 'safe' to have lunch. We popped into one place, but it looked awful, so we mozzied on out and bumped into a group of Israeli tourists who recommended another place further up the road, they were deep into explaining how nice it was there but they had already lost me at the words 'falafel pitta'.

The restaurant was a flea pit, but by this point I had to have falafel so we found another cute looking cafe round the corner with a lovely garden. We took out seats and looked through the menu. Claude decided to stick with veggies whilst I went for my hearts desire! It had been so long since I had eaten something fresh like salad and all I could think about was the crispy lettuce, the succulent tomatoes and the mouth watering cucumber that would be served with it. Which is very unusual for me as I generally tend to go for things that are either deep fried, or covered in sugar - or chocolate - and generally pumped full of E numbers!

The service took ages and while we waited I found myself overcome with tiredness. I could just about stay awake for the food by trying to concentrate on Claudine giving me the well deserved lecture on how dangerous it was to eat salad out in India, but my stomach was already starting to gurgle a bit.

Now many of you fellow IBS sufferers will know that this can be common place and 'just' a bit of discomfort for a while, so I chose to ignore it.

The food finally arrived; my fallafel was as hard as rock but the salad was so fresh and delicious as was the humous. Unfortunately Claudine's meal as she herself put it "tasted like vomit". So we left soon after and walked straight back to the hotel.

Suddenly, whilst standing outside our hotel room as Claudine fumbled around with  lock I felt a rather distressing sensation in my stomach and it was then I knew that I was in trouble!!!

We managed to get in, just in time as sprinted (world speed) to the loo and slammed the door behind me. I screamed out to Claudine to "turn the TV up loudly" as I felt as if the world had just exploded out of me.

That was it ... from then on my temperature flew up, I lay on the bed as I went from sweating buckets, to shivering so much even my goose bumps had goose bumps. Poor Claude was suffering from heat exhaustion as I demanded the fans be turned off and I climbed under blankets and clothes ... then a few minutes later I would throw all the bed clothes off me and demand the fans be put on full blast!!!

Claudine was a true 'Florence Nightingale' (though also a bit 'Nurse Ratchetty' at times too) as she fed my Immodium, Dehydrating salts and Cyprofloxin. But I was beside myself and to make things worse ... there was nothing decent to watch on TV!!!! (anyone who knows us Epstein's knows we are TV addicts and therefore how devastating that situation would be!).

Claude went off for dinner downstairs with an American girl we had met earlier in the day, whilst I lay in bed feeling sorry for myself. I couldn't stop drinking, nothing seemed to be able to quench my thirst, I could have drunk the River Ganges dry - but then that would probably have left me in a worse situation than I already was!?

Finally I fell asleep, dreaming about my mum's chicken soup and a large glass of hot ribena!! When suddenly I awoke with a huge cramp in my stomach, I ran as quietly as I could to the bathroom, trying not to wake Claude up in the other bed, I skidded across the tiles on the bathroom floor and landed on the loo, again just in time. But all of a sudden I realised I needed to be sick!!! What was I to do? There was no way I was gonna stick my head down that toilet after knowing what had just been flushed down it. I spied the bucket for washing clothes not too far away and managed to stay on the loo whilst reaching out for the bucket and grabbing it. (my physio always said I was quite flexible considering how unfit I am!). The next ten minutes were quite pathetic really. But suffice it to say I went back to bed a whole stone lighter!!!

As I climbed into bed, I heard Claudine mutter, "Are you alright". I told her I was surpised she hadn't heard the commotion going on in the bathroom to which she pointed out that she sleeps with ear plugs in, then she told me she would try to sleep without them for fear I may stop breathing during the night and she needed to hear me exhaling!!

The following day we were meant to go to Jodhpur, but when I woke, I knew there was no way I would last even an hour in the car let alone 4!! And so it was decided, or rather I reluctantly agreed to let Claude call for a doctor.

The Doctor arrived with Suresh (our driver) and both the manager and one of the waiters from the hotel?!? The doctor felt my arm then my forehead and asked me details about my vomit and pooh!! Before answering I looked up to see Suresh, the manager and the waiter all standing at the end of my bed, just staring at me!! I was so embarassed and hoped their English wasn't that good!

Then the Doctor started to reach for his stethoscope around his neck and my immediate thought was that there was no way I was lifting my top in front of everyone! Luckily, his hand by passed the stethoscope and reached into his shirt pocket where he pulled out a pen and started writing out a prescription.

He looked at me very seriously and explained that it is probably just a bacteria in my gut that I have, however, it isn't generally accompanied with a temperature, so taking that in mind, if the temperature hadn't gone within 24 hours I was to go to hospital and get checked for malaria!! (at this point the blood drained from my very flushed face). He then lay out an assortment of pills and explained how and when to use them, luckily Claudine was taking note because all I could hear was Malaria, Malaria, Malaria ...

Once my audience had finally left I looked at my friend and panicked, we started looking through our guide books for descriptions of the various kinds of malaria readily available in India and then we looked at the stack of pills on the bed. I begged Claudine to phone my Uncle Geoff in the UK (remember he's the doctor in the family) and double check with him. He sounded half asleep when he answered the phone - of course he was I mean it was 5 O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING!!! (oops). Anyways, he reassured us all would be ok and just to take what ever had been given to me.

One thing you should know is that the pills out here are not coated!!! So as soon as they go on the tongue they start dissolving - it was disgusting. And no sooner had I taken all of them that I rushed to the bathroom and puked them all up in the sink, I was sick so many times at that point that I could practically hear my stomach screaming"get it out, get it out!!!!". We spoke to the doctor who suggested leaving a specific pill out as that was a side effect?!?!?!?!

The rest of the day was pretty boring really, I went to sleep, got up went to the loo, started to walk out, turned back and threw up then went to bed, went to sleep and so it continued - bit like Ground Hog day.

The following morning I felt so much better!! And I got out of bed with a huge smile on my face. But as soon as my feet hit the floor my stomach churned and I rushed to the loo. Whilst sitting there I could hear my friend calling out to me from her bed. 'I may have a slight emergency'! And that was it, that morning both Claude and I were alternatively running to the loo. It was a bit like a relay race; I would run out and smile at her, then she would go in, then she would run out and smile at me etc ... etc ... In fact it even became quite competitive as we started on descriptions of what was going on, (don't worry I will spare you those details), I mean what where we turning into?!?! Men!

Finally after a few rounds of Immodium we were both sufficiently bunged up enough to get in the car and drive to Jodhpur.

The hotel was amazing, the best so far. A huge room with cement arches inside. The restaurant was stunning and we had a full 360 degree view of the city, lit up at night. Though I don't think the waiter was very impressed with us when all we ordered for dinner was a pot of tea and scrambled eggs on toast!! (bloody Britishes).

Our one day in Jodhpur was ok, it could have or in fact should have been better if it wasn't for the fact that I still felt really ropey. We saw a palace, we saw a museum and a fort ... got photos to put up at a later date. And in between I just slept in the car!

Then yesterday we drove to Udaipur. We arrived about 7 and just crawled into bed. I was going to order Chicken noodle soup for comfort, but Claudine threw me such a look and said 'Chicken' (which meant food poisoning) so I settled for mushroom soup then settled down to sleep.

Today we went around Udaipur, the two of us still feeling constantly sick and still with not very well in our stomachs generally. But we managed to take in the sights of the floating palace, the huge Jian Mosque, The City Palace and of course Mac Donalds!! Which we both felt was safer than going to a curry restaurant!!!

Tomorrow we are off to Kerala (down south), where we hope to recuperate!!! So until then ... oops gotta go ....

I remember why I never climbed Masada!!!!

Bloody Hell!!! I mean BERRR ... LUDEEEEE .... HELLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! 320 steps!!! And I did it!! My legs may not be my best friends at the moment but I bloody did it!!! Got to the top, nearly passed out my heart was beating so hard, I thought it was going to burst out of my chest (just like that scene in Alien!!) Claudine was great, she just marched up had a quick look at the sun setting and said: "Right let's go down before it gets too dark!" Whilst I lay sprawled out on the chair, sweat pouring profusely out of every pore in my body, practically catatonic from exhaustion!

I was allowed a couple of minutes to recuperate and managed to take a couple of photos, the scene was stunning!! 

Then we made our way back down by torch light. The pair of us must have looked so pathetic, both slightly nervous as the terrain was quite rough for the first half hour and my legs were still shaking from the walk up.

As we carefully made our way back down, slipping every now and then, (sometimes it pays to have a large bottom, excellent cushioning!!!) I kept getting berated by my travel companion for not walking down sideways as apparently it is safer?? When suddenly out of the blue there was this strange noise and I shone my torch back behind us to see a rather large Monkey, running down the steps at full throttle!! We were both frozen to the spot, my brain kept shouting at me to "get that over ripe banana out of your bag!!! Now!" then luckily Mr Monkey lept off the steps and disappeared amongst the bushes!!

We carried on painstakingly making our way down the steps and boulders, as I commented how agile the monkeys were, must be their aposable big toes that help them grip. When suddenly a group of tourists came running past us, laughing and chatting, not the least bit scared about the journey down.
I think it took us about an hour to get back down in one piece. A major challenge for me and Pam, if you are reading this, you would have been well impressed!!! (Pam is my physio that I have to visit regularly to ease the pain of my active life getting in and out of my car!)

Today is chill out day ... our driver Suresh has the day off, so we are just taking a leisurely stroll through the market and visiting the Brahmen temple. Stunning, but unfortunately I was not allowed to take any piccies!!

I would like to go back to the hotel this afternoon and relax by the pool, but I have to say that this time I am in agreement with Claudine, the water is so green and murky I am not sure that Cholera is the only thing that we could catch in there!!

Tomorrow we move on to Puskar for a few days then onto Johdpur!! Bet you can't guess what I plan to buy over there!!!!!!

3 Days on but still here!!

Ok I know I disappeared for a few days, but it has not been easy to find access to the internet (despite what many of you told me before I left!!). So I will try to remember most things that have happened since last I wrote. I know I am teased by many for having the memory of an elephant, but believe me, in this heat, I think my brain may have melted a bit!!

Here goes ... TUES 15th we finally left Varanasi!!! Having got through the embarassment of signing out of our hotel AGAIN, we made it to the train station in plenty of time and met a couple of Russian ladies  - Irene and Lena - sharing with us. (One spoke English, the other understood English but could speak French - which Claudine is fluent in and they both spoke Russian - which Claudine can speak too!!) So, I let Claudine practise her language skills whilst I lay back and listened to my music and read my book.

This particular train journey was so much better than the last, (less crowded and no 'gaseous noises' or gobbing up) our dinner comprised of a packet of Oreo Cookies and a mango juice as there was no food served, (well apart from 4am when someone walked down the aisles shouting out 'Chai, Chai!!') Unfortunately it took me a while to fall asleep and when I fnally did, the light was flicked on at about 1am as the 'cabin boy' showed another man to his bed above Claudine and then continued to have a long and loud conversation with the ticket inspector, with no regard for the rest of us sleeping there. That was until we shouted out in unison: 'Shut Up!!' which seems to be a universal term!

Finally we arrived in Agra!! Our driver Suresh was there to meet us - the train was an hour late!!! And he drove us to our hotel.

Our first place to visit that day was of course ... The Taj Mahal!!! It is absolutely stunning!!! So pleased I didn't miss the opportunity to see one of the Seven Man-Made Wonders of The World. (my sis on the other hand, when she was a travelling student of photography, never made it to Agra whilst over in this sub-continent, her reason being that all the tourists go there, so why should she?!?) It did make me laugh as we constantly heard the various American tourists trying to suss out which bench Princess Diana was photographed sitting on, and obviously needing to have the 'Diana shot'; sat alone on the bench staring straight ahead?!!

Whilst being taken around by a guide, we bumped into Irene and Lena! They joined us on our tour. Which the guide was quite happy about as it meant more of a tip for him - he had already told us how much money he had earned the day before!!

The Taj took 22 years to build and over 20,000 men to build it!! Shah Jahan had it built to enshrine the body of his favourite wife (he had three) Mumtaz Mahal -  who died giving birth to their 14th child!!! Only six of these children survived (four boys and two girls) - and as happens in a lot of these historical stories, one of the sons grew up wanting it all to himself, so cut off the heads of his brothers and threw them in the river then sent his father over to the Agra Fort where he was imprisoned for the rest of his life and later buried next to Mumtaz. What a nice family man! 

As we got to towards the end of our tour, the guide insisted that we go and have a look at a factory where cloths and carpets were made -  we humoured him out of interest and it was amazing how his attitude turned slightly hostile when we left without purchasing anything.

FINALLY!  It has taken us just over two weeks and a few over priced purchases, to suss out that the guides get commission for everything we buy in their recommended shops!

The following day we left Agra and stopped off at Fatehpur Sikri which was the former capital before the king moved to Agra. Where, we bumped into Lena and Irene again!!

The Royal palace was amazing, the designs engraved into the walls showed Christian, Islamic and Hindu symbols to symbolise the three wives that the Raj was married to.

After spending a few hours here Suresh drove us off to our hotel in Jaipur, The Laxmi Palace. Despite it's name, I have to say the Laxmi Palace couldn't be more of a mysnoma?!?! But the beds were comfy and at least there was an anti mosquito device in the room. (Claudine is worried she may catch Malaria).

We arrived late in the day and just chilled out in the hotel before going out for dinner (no Macdonalds, so it was Curry night again?!) And when we woke yesterday, Suresh took us to meet our guide in the City. (Jaipur is known as The Pink City, due to the buildings all painted a salmon pink for the visit of Prince Albert during Victoria's reign).

We saw the Hawa Mahal - the most recognisable landmark (Palace of the winds as it is known). Which is more or less a facade for the ladies of the court to stand behind and watch the royal processions etc ... without themselves being seen. Cause we all know what temptresses us females are?!?!

During our tour of the palace and the mosque we bumped into Victoria, an Argentinian girl we had met in Varanasi!!! It's true that India is such a large country yet small enough to keep bumping into people again and again and again ...

I have to say, everything started to merge together after a while, so will try to write more on these sights at a later date, as there is only one computer where I am sat and a queue of people waiting to use it.

The long and short was that two days in Jaipur was enough, so much haggling and people asking us for money, was enough to drive me slightly insane - though some would say I was driven there a long time ago!!!

This morning we left Jaipur around 10 and were driven over to Pushkah, were we are staying at a slightly better hotel, with an extremely inviting swimming pool - though Claudine is worried she may catch Cholera from it?

In about half an hour we are being picked up and taken to one of the Temples at a hill nearby. Well I say a hill, but apparently there are 320 steps to climb and I am starting to wonder if this is such a good idea!!! Claude is keen, she reckons we need to exercise, where as I reckon I need a large Vodka and Tonic!!! So fingers crossed, wish me luck and hope to be able to write more soon ...

Silly Britishess!

On Sunday, Maneesh - our tour guide - took us to the sights of Varanasi. His driving skills are up there with the best of them - in India!!! As he pointed out to us, in order to drive out here, you need three things: 'Good Horn, Good Brakes and Good Luck!' (And in my case, a good sick bag! I am hoping that by the end of my trip I will stop getting travel sick everytime I get into the back of a car?!?!)

First stop was the place where Buddah visited and gave his first sermon. The temple was beautiful. Then we went to a Jain Temple to compare the two religions. Jainism has it's roots in Hinduism. In fact it can be described as a religion that prescribes a path of non-violence towards all living beings. And to practice self-effort to move the soul towards divine consciousness and liberation. According to Maneesh, SOUL stands for 'Subject of Universal life'. And because the Jains don't believe in killing ANY living thing, they don't wash themselves or brush their teeth, so as not to kill any bacteria living on the body. Nor do they cut or shave their heads, instead each hair is pulled out one at a time!! And should they shed a tear from the pain, then they have to fast. As for their eating practices, they have one day that they only eat and one day that they only drink. As the Jain student pointed out to us, there is one way to tell the difference between Jain and Buddhist monks, he claims that Buddhist monks are 'fatties' because they eat more. Personally I think the easiest way to tell the difference is the mere fact that Buddhist monks wear orange or white robes and Jain's wear their birthday suits!!! I have to admit it was very hard to stop looking away as the student showed us plenty of photos of him and his family posing with their naked Jain Guru!! 

We were then taken into the silk district, where all the silk is woven. Obviously we ended up buying here! 

That evening we went to visit the Ghats. There are 365 of them in total and no we only visited a couple - come on, you know I don't walk very far!! Each one is named after a city in India. And it is here that every evening a Hindu service takes place, to bless the living. 

That is, each Ghat bar two and from these you can see the funeral pyres being lit and floated out onto The River Ganges; where the Hindu's believe is the fast trip up to heaven. Apparently, there are over 300 funerals a day!! 

The ceremonies were amazing to watch and at 5am yesterday morning we were taken out on a boat trip along the River as the sun rose. 

That in itself was mesmerizing and something quite calm and serene about the whole place. (I guess I kind of ruined the atmosphere when I pointed out to Claude that all the bubbly white stuff floating on the waters surface was probably sub-cutaneous fat and kind of reminded me of cooking chicken soup).

Oh and apart from in the river, there were cows everywhere. Mustn't forget the sacred cows!

We were back at the hotel for breakfast by 10am and working out what to do with our last few hours in Varanasi before catching the dreaded 12 hour train journey to Agra. 

It was a agreed that we needed to relax for a bit, so both went of for an Ayurvedic massage. By all accounts this wasn't the most relaxing massage I have had and felt like I was being battered and bruised, but, by the time we left, I felt amazing. All my aches and pains from lugging my rucksack around had vanished!! And I was now ready to get on that train ...

Our car picked us up at 5 15 and we made it to the train station in plenty of time - with 45 minutes to spare, plus obviously a little extra as everything runs late in India! After saying goodbye to Maneesh we went down to the platform where a train was waiting. But surely this couldn't be our train, we are after all in India, so it couldn't be early??? 

I walked over to a group of tourists and asked if they were off to Agra too. The lady said they weren't but their guide could help us. The guide looked at the train number on our ticket then turned and pointed to the train which was now leaving the station and said "That is your train".

Instantly, the colour drained from our faces as we started exclaiming that it couldn't be, that our train wasn't due for another half hour at least.

The Guide tried to flag the train down, with each carriage that passed he called out something in Hindi to an official standing in the doorways and gestured pulling the brake. But to no avail. Before I knew it, there was a whole group of Indian men with us screaming at the train whilst urging us to run down the platform and catch it!!!

I tried, but there is only so much speed I could pick up with a huge ruck sack on my back, I turned to Claudine and screamed "Run, we have to run". Poor Claudine was fixed to the spot, she couldn't move, her ruck sack is practically as big as her and she had already hurt her back whilst trying to carry it earlier on. We were doomed!!

I turned around to see that we were now surrounded by the obligatory starey eyed Indian men, leading at us. One came up and asked to see the ticket. I showed it to him, he looked at the ticket, smiled and looked back at me and said: "Today is the 14th, your ticket is booked for the 15th!" 

BLOODY HELL!!! I stood and looked at Claude, sweat pouring from every pore in my body, my hair so frizzed from the heat and humidity that I would have problems getting through doorways. I thought to myself that this is it, this is when she is really going to lose it ... but she just looked back up at me and burst out laughing!!! In fact we both laughed, hysterically all the way out of the station where we called Maneesh and waited for him to come and pick us up, whilst another group of Indian men surrounded us and said nothing, but just stared!

Luckily, everything was sorted out and we got our room back at the hotel.  And so now, I am preparing myself yet again, to get on a 12 hour train ride to Agra ... we get in at 6am tomorrow morn then it is straight off to see the Taj Mahal - she had better be worth it!!!

Agra, here we come ....

Planes, trains and the River Ganges ...

I AM SO EXHAUSTED!!! Will try and stay awake just to catch you all up on that's been going on out here ... may fall asleep at the keyboard though?!?!?!

Let me see: got up yesterday at 7am to find that the electricity had gone again, as had the water!! Claudine was in a state because she was worried about being too smelly if she couldn't have a shower, then panicked about me touching some of her clothes after I had handed her some money before washing my hands; she was worried I may transfer germs from the notes to her t shirt!! I knew from that instance, that she was feeling better and back to her old self again!

After a quick breakfast we both said goodbye to the other volunteers (Julia, Sunita, Ele and Hannah) as well as Sharan and finally the Major and his wife Neema. I was still feeling upset about the experience at the girls' orphanage the previous day, so before I left I told Sharan that I wanted to pay for any of the medicine needed for the little girl with the sore on her face. I was concerned it was going to run to about £100 but the Majot said £10 would suffice and Sharan assured me that not only would something be done, but any change left over after buying the medicine would only be used on the same girl.

We gave one final wave goodbye then headed off towards the car where we had a three hour journey to the train station. Here we had to wait another hour for our train to finally arrive, but once on, you can imagine how delighted we were to find out that we were sharing our little 'area' with nine men, one of whom had climbed on board illegally (there were only eight beds)!!!

Claude and I immediately laid our bags out over one of the bed/couches afte which I think they kind of got the message and no one came near us for a while - mind you, most of the journey was spent with them just staring at us, as though we were some kind of new creatures in a zoo.

Lunch and dinner were pretty much the same - hot and spicy curry!! (I did advice Claude against it all things considered!) Luckily we had come on board laden with biscuits - much more appetising. In fact, it turned out that the meal was so spicy that even a couple of the guys couldn't eat it.

I finally gave into my bladder and attempted to go to the toilet ... have you ever tried to use a squat toilet, on a moving train, where the floor is soaked in water and piss and there is only one rail to hold onto at the same time as trying to hold your trousers 'out of the line of fire' with your other hand whilst also trying to stop your trouser legs from dropping below your ankles and soaking up the water on the floor??? Bloody difficult! After that I refused to have anything else to drink for fear I would need to go again and thought dehydration was a much better option!!

Eventually we made up our beds and tried to sleep, that was also not an easy thing to do: trying to sleep through the sound of the train as it rattled down the tracks, whilst a load of men lie sleeping nearby snoring, burping and farting without any consideration that there are British ladies around!!!! ('Britishess' as they like to call us).

But thank goodness we were awake at half past midnight, because miracle upon miracles, our train arrived at our destination half an hour early!!! After leaping out of the bunk, I was desperately trying to remain calm as I gathered my ruck sack (that seems to have put on as much weight as I have lost), when suddenly,  Claude starts panicking as she realises that she has padlocked her ruck sack to the top bunk and it is too dark for her to work out the code. The solution was simple ... I turned on the light and sorted it! Then we got off the train, whilst checking with one of the other passengers that we were at the correct station because everything was written in Hindi. The man was very helpful and luckily my cousin Robert had warned me that should I ask anyone a question that requires a yes for an answer, the person will nod AND shake their head!!! So reassured we climbed off the train and as it pulled away, Claudine started panicking (again) and screaming (again) that the man could have lied to us!! Again I stayed calm and asked her why he would feel the need to do so, to which she replied that she had read some people just lie?!?! At that point a young man walks over to us holding a sign with Claudine's name on it - our driver to take us to the hotel!!! (I think we were rather easy to spot, seeing as not only were we the only white people standing on the platform, but we were also the only people still awake). And so we made our way through the sea of sleeping Indians and finally got into an air conditioned car!

On arriving at the hotel we went up to our rooms and both passed out on the bed - it was 3am!

Today we were taken on a tour round a small part of Varanasi (so called because the river Vara runs into the River Ganga at one end and the River Nasi runs into it at the other. The day was full on; visiting Silk factories, Buddist Temples (the first one), Jain Temples, Museums and prayers on the Ganges. Then finally ending up at MacDonalds for dinner - an exciting change to curry!!!

But I have to be up at 5am tomorrow as we are going to watch the sunrise over the River Ganga - the holiest place in the City. And so I will save the rest of our trip in this weird and wonderful city until the next time ... so until then 'Namastay'.

Power cuts, Water cuts and Dodgy Tummies!!!

Gonna have to be quick as we have already had two power cuts this eve and quite a few last night!! Not only that, but the water has also gone off back at the house!! 

Apparently this happens a lot out here in India! As does ....... Dehli Belly!! Quite ironic that it is Claudine who is the first to be hit by the dreaded stomach bug as she practically rattled from all the preventative drugs (both Western and holistic) that she had been taking ... I felt so bad for her the last couple of days and wouldn't wish what she has suffered on my worst enemy, (well maybe a couple of ex boyfriends ... and one of my secondary school teachers!). Luckily she is on the mend, as we are off on a long train ride tomorrow to Varanasi and having shared a room with her over the last couple of days I can honestly say that there is no way that I could ever consider a vocation in nursing!!!

Today has been freezing, the sun has gone and it has seemed like an early winter day in London. Apparently all the schools close on December 15th and don't open again until March!! The reason for this, is it is so cold that as many people as possible move down to the slightly warmer climate in The Planes. So I think Claude and I have timed our leaving Darjeeling just right.

I went to say goodbye to the girls at the Orphanage this afternoon and turned up laden with cakes and biscuits for them all. (Claude opted out as she was spending most of her time saying her goodbyes to the toilet!). Obviously the kids were delighted with their treat, but it broke my heart to say goodbye; a few girls kept asking when I was coming back and that they were sad I was leaving. One little girl that I have become quite attached to has an open sore on her face, which I suspect is from an exzma patch she has scratched too much and become infected. We found out that she had in fact been taken to the doctor and he had written her out a prescription for some cream and medicine. I was shocked and disgusted to find out when I looked at the prescription, that it had been dated back from Oct 11th!!! Sharan (the trustee who invited Claude and me out here), was not impressed either and fingers crossed is going to get something sorted as soon as. Otherwise I am tempted to go out and by the medication myself!

Afterwards I went with the other volunteers for a drink, we were sitting in our booth chatting about the days events when Julia handed me a note that one of the other girls had secretly passed her and asked to give to me tomorrow. I read it ... I cried ... She thanked me for visiting and told me how much she loved me (100 times) and hoped I will come back and see her soon then signed it 'your ever loving sister'.

I have been so moved by my short experience here, I feel the need to do something positive about it and am seriously thinking of sponsoring one of the girls once I am back home. They all deserve a good education and a chance to improve their lives.

Well that is all for tonight ... I am off for our farewell meal back at the house and I know a slice of chocolate cake has been especially bought for me!!! Darjeeling is a great place to come visit, I encourage any one of you to find the time and see for yourselves ... though obviously wait for the summer!!!

Varanasi, here we come ..... 

Tea for Two ...

I don't think I have EVER walked so much in my life!!!! Darjeeling is like Sheffield - loads of hills and steep ones at that. My general exercise back home, is to walk to my car, so if my bum isn't smaller and firmer by the time I get back to the UK, from all this hiking, then something is not right with this world!!!

This morning we all went down to the boys orphanage. (Yet another long walk down hill. And as we all know, what goes down must come up!!). The Orphanage is run by a group of Tibetan Monks and the boys seemed just as well behaved and charming as the girls. However, in this case, their home is at risk!!!

There was an earthquake here in September and horrendous cracks have appeared all over the building which actually sits on the edge of the hillside. There is not enough money to repair everything, so we all went along with the trust to take photos of some of the boys that were there today and interview them for some of the publicity to help promote fundraising for them all.

Today is a Sikh holiday so a handful of the boys were not in school,  therefore we managed to photograph the small group. Considering they were young lads of all ages, they were surprisingly all so well behaved and respectful. No giggling or punching/pinching each other as they sat in silence waiting for their photo to be taken.

So here is the plug again: www.darjeelingchildrenstrust.com - please take a look. If any of you feel like you want to do something worthwhile, come and volunteer out here for a bit. Darjeeling is stunning to see and the children are so loving and happy! If volunteering isn't your bag, then what about sponsoring a child?

After the Orphanage, Claude and I tried to book tickets for a 'short' two hour ride on The Toy Train, aka known as 'The Joy Ride'. My nephew Joe (a three year old train spotter in the making) would be in his element!!! Receiving its World Hereitage Status by UNESCO in 1999, it is the oldest steam train in the world and apparently well worth the trip along the Hill Cart Road. However, by the time we arrived at the station, there were no tickets left!!! And tomorrow is our last day in Darjeeling! And so, I will just have to settle for a few photographs of the station. Sorry Joe none of the train for now ;( 

Right that is all for now, gonna put some lippie on as a few of us are off for "afternoon tea' at the renowned Windham Hotel. Tomorrow as I said is our last day here in Darjeeling then we prepare ourselves for an overnight train ride to Varanasi!!! Watch this space ...

Chips for breakfast!!!!

Well you may be pleased to know I survived yet another bloody freezing night in Darjeeling!!! The evenings are so cold that last night I went to bed wearing socks, pyjama trousers, thermal long sleeve top (donated by Robert) and a hat (donated by Jess) as well as sleeping under one quilt folded over to double layers, a blanket, another quilt folded over to double layers as well as an airplane blanket ('donated' by B.A.) My ex used to call me 'The Lizard' because I was always cold, but I defy anyone to sleep in less, in a basement room,  in these night time temperatures WITHOUT any kind of heating!!!

Once I had thawed out, I made my way down to breakfast where we were served egg and chips!!! (not sure what kind of impression they have of us Brits out here), it all seemed a bit out of place as that is usually the kind of breakfast you can find me scoffing down late on a sunday morning after a night of reasonably heavy drinking! (those of you that know me well, will know that it only takes one sniff of the wine cork and I'm pissed!).

After breakie Claude went to take a lesson in the girls school and I took the opportunity to spend some time on my own mooching around and praying that I wouldn't get lost if I concentrated hard enough on my surroundings.

It was a very relaxing day! Just walking around the Chowrasta (nothing to do with eating with Bob Marley, just the name for the main square) and then I wound my way up and down the tiny roads looking in at the shops.

To my surprise I managed to find my way back to the house for lunch - the Lasky family gene that has no sense of direction, inherited from my mum's side of the family, obviously has been weakened by the cold night time temperatures and an inordinate amount of curry?

Admittedly though, I was rather thrown at one point when a slightly dirty middle aged man walked up to me and shook my hand then nodded as he seemed to reach out for my right breast!!! I reacted in true British style: I just smiled and said "No thank you." Then subtly took out my hand sanitizer as I rushed off down the street.

This afternoon I made my return to the Orphanage,  the girls seemed delighted to see me again and were keen to know why I had not been back the day before. My Nepalese/Hindi is very limited to the point of non-existance; having tried to learn to say 'Hello', Goodbye', 'Please' and 'Thank you' to no avail, then realising that a simple nod of the head covers all the above. So I didn't know how to explain that I was down at a Tibetan Monastary checking out where the Dalai Lama slept on his visits?!?!

Never the less the copious smiles and hugs were enough to make me feel extremely welcome and sad to say goodnight a couple of hours later.

Well that is all to report on today, as I said it was a very relaxing one, so I am now on my way back to the house for dinner ... wonder what kind of delicacy is on offer tonight? Doubt it will be mum's best ever chicken soup and Kneidlach! There's a good chance it will be curry?

Until next time ...

Tea and a bit of Buddism ...

Still in Darjeeling and I have to say it is an absolutely stunning place, we have been so lucky with the weather; so far the days have been warm, sunny and clear and the clear view of the Himalayas is breath taking - even though I was too knackered to get up at 3 30 this morning and join the others to see the sun rise over them!! (All this fresh mountain air is just too healthy!!!)

Yesterday morning was spent going for a long walk along the Labyrinth of roads and through The Chowrasta ... shops on one side, stalls on the other, dogs lying asleep scattered anywhere and everywhere, no cows but there were monkeys and plenty of them. (Not sure if Claudine is frightened of them or the germs that she pointed out that they were carrying). 

We climbed up 'Observatory Hill', which luckily was just a hill as my legs generally don't do hikes - well not yet anyway. Apparently one is supposed to get a beautiful view of the Himalayas, particularly Mount Kanchenjunga, from here. However, the view seemed to be obscured by trees and more trees. And we all know what animal likes to live in trees ...

The hillside was rife with monkeys of all ages and we were advised to hold on tightly to our bags, less the little primates should attempt a snatch and grab. Claudine did seem rather concerned as the inquisitive little creatures eyed her up - was this nervous little woman going to be easy pickings? Mind you, if they had seen the 'might of Claudine' over in Delhi a few days back, they probably would have avoided her from the start. As it was Claude gave them 'the stare' she now used on any friendly passer by, 'just wanting to chat' and the monkeys moved on.

Halfway up the hill is The Temple of Mahakal, which stands where the Oldest Monastery in Darjeeling, The Bhutia Busty Monastery, used to be, before it was sacked by the Gorkhas (not Gherkas) in 1815 and finally moved. 

The Mahakal Temple there is pretty stunning, full of coloured flags hanging everywhere. There are six colours in total: red, white, blue, black, green and yellow. Buddhists believe that each of those partiicular colours vibrates with different parts of the body, as well as representing the four elements and workig wiith various emotions.

Prayer was taking place as we stood watched and listened to the chanting and bell ringing. The Temple was built for followers of Lord Shiva and only those followers are allowed to step inside the two sacred caves nearby.

It is interesting to know that the Sanskrit word "Durjay-ling" means "Shiva of invincible prowess who rules the Himalayas". And some believe this is where the name Darjeeling is derived from.

We moved on down, back through the Chowrasta and looked out across at the stunning sight of the Himalayas, it is truly breathtaking, fortunately the sky was so clear that day that we could see the peaks that make out the shape of Lord Shiva lying across the mountain tops.

If you look carefully you can see the profile of his face to the left, then move your eyes down to follow his arms crossed over his chest then see the outline of his body all the way down to the tip of his toes.

By this point we were parched and popped off for a pot of delicious Darjeeling tea, followed by an amazing lunch back at the house.

Afterwards, Claude and I trudged down the winding roads and finally found our way down to the National Zoo. (It turns out that my travel companions sense of direction is only marginally better than mine. And I could get lost walking around a christmas tree!!!)

Now I have to admit, that generally I don't like zoos, I find it too upsetting seeing all the animals pacing around in their tiny cages/enclosures. But at this particular Zoo, they were given plenty of space and I had the opportunity to go and see The Red Pandas, actually to be honest, I never even knew they existed until now. And being of the ginger race myself, I felt akin to this great big ginger and white bamboo eating creature. We stood by the enclosure and waited and waited and waited, then realised that the ginger badger looking animals we had been staring at, were in fact the pandas!

After the zoo, we had to rush off to meet the others to go and visit the girls at the Orphanage that the trust sponsors and supports. (Ok brief bit of advertising here: please check out www.darjeelingchildrenstrust.com) The ages of the girls range from about 6 to 18 years old and they were absolutely adorable. It was so nice to walk into a room and see it suddenly light up with the smiling faces of these beautiful girls, all running over to us and wanting to play. Most of them could speak a little English and wanted to teach us clapping games. And a lot just wanted to stare at my hair then stroke it!!!

And apparently I was to feel complimented that they referred to me as 'sister' rather than 'auntie', allegedly it shows how young I look ... to be honest I felt complimented they wanted to be related to me at all!

The girls seemed so happy to see us, they live in such poverty (they can only bathe once a fortnight and even then the water is freezing). Most of them do have parents, who just can't afford to look after them, many also have brothers that they have been separated from because the boys are sent off to the boy's orphanage elsewhere in town. It really is heartbreaking.

As deepest Winter approaches, all the children are sent back home for a couple of months to their families, down on The Plains, where it is only slightly warmer.

I was surprised at how much my spirits were lifted by these adorable, loving children; I have never really considered myself to be maternal, but I left that building wanting to smuggle most of the girls back home with me and I really can't wait to go visit them again tomorrow!

This morning Claudine and I managed to make our way all the way down to the Botanical Gardens; unfortunately for me, Claudine did start physically heaving as we passed an open sewer en route!! Hmm and we are only one week into the trip ...

I can't say I was too impressed with the flora and fauna there; nothing seemed to be really in bloom - maybe I have been spoilt by Kew Gardens and The Eden Project. But it probably didn't help that my stomach started to make some unpleasant gurgling sounds and the thought of being stuck at the bottom of a steep hill with nothing but a few bushes to squat behind was making my stomach tighten even more.

"Not bad", I hear those of you that know me and my obsession with bowel movements say. "It's taken her nearly a week before getting onto the subject of the toilet!" For those of you who don't know me, yet are fellow sufferers of IBS, I am sure you will appreciate the aforementioned obsession?

Luckily, (and praise be to Lord Shiva) we managed to make our way all the way back up the steep 40 minute climb, with neither of us passing out from heat exhaustion, dehydration, knee pain, swollen ankles or any other interruptions. My stomach was fine and I could relax.

This afternoon was spent visiting the Tibetan Refugee Help Centre. I am embarassed to admit how ignorant I am of the horrific situation between Tibet and China. Now having read the bullet points on how the Tibetans have been and are still being treated by the Chinese, I feel sickened. In fact if one were to switch the word Chinese with Nazis and Tibetans with Jews, that would give you a rough idea!!!

Without wanting to end today's blog on such a negative and sad note, I will finish by saying that these last few days out here in Darjeeling have definately been an eye opener and help me put a lot of things into perspective. I wouldn't say that the things that had brought me so much pain before I left have gone away, but I would certainly say that they are becoming much easier to deal with and I can't wait to find out what the rest of the trip brings (famous last words?) ...

From Delhi to Darjeeling in 12hours!!!

Ok, ok, from the amount of emails I have been sent, I realise you want to know what happened with the police. And so, here it is  ... 

As you can imagine, there was not much sleep achieved the night before during the planning of our Cagney and Lacey intervention. And so at 7am we trudged downstairs for breakfast, after which, as arranged, Mr Policeman turned up at 8am at Reception - we had to ignore the persistent phone calls from the 'Tour Guide' to our new mobile phone as he he waited for us outside in his tuk-tuk,  apparently too nervous to come inside, for fear we had rumbled them.

Claude and I explained the situation to the Policeman, via a translation from the Hotel Manager, the Policeman nodded at us, then nodded at the hotel manager and followed him into the back room - to have his breakfast!!!! We waited around for about another half an hour until he had finally had his fill of tea and toast and then the three of us squeezed into a Rickshaw and went off to confront Raj and his crew - the Policeman had still not actually spoken to us.

Now remember Claudine had promised me that her new chilled out and relaxed personality was going to show itself, so much so that I was not going to recognise her on this trip. And so it was agreed in the tuk-tuk, that we would stay calm and collected, yet assertive and demanding.

We pulled up outside the so called Tourist Office and casually strolled inside. Mr Policeman took his seat behind us and sat in complete stoney silence throughout whilst we confronted the manager - Raj was out at the time. 

Now my dad had always taught me that the first person to start shouting in an argument, is actually the person that has already lost. So I spoke to the Manager as calmly and controlled as possible - aparently I have to practise on being assertive, whilst Claudine has to practise on being less aggressive?! 

Then Raj walked in.

Sorry to sound like a cliche, but it was like "a red rag to a bull". The new calm and relaxed Claudine saw him enter, her eyes glazed over and she turned on him, leaping from her seat and screaming like a a banshee at the unsuspecting fool; throwing threats at him about reporting them all to the Police Station and The British Embassy ... lecturing them about Karma and how theirs was obviously not good, accusing them of corruption and immoral behaviour. 

Raj shouted back, Claudine hissed back, Raj shouted louder, Claudine hissed harder; I was ducking from the spit flying across the room from both irate parties, whilst muttering under my breath, stay calm, stay calm ... a chair was thrown back as Claudine lept forward, glaring at the men and demanded our money back, in full. (At this juncture I should point out that Claudine is a tiny, svelte woman, no more than 5 foot 3. The image that comes to mind is a Little Yorkshire Terrier yapping up at a full grown Doberman!?)  And you know what? We got our money back, in full!! Straight out of Raj's back pocket, still folded up from the day before. 

After that fraught morning, we decided to take the rest of the day at a leisurely pace and do some touring of Old Delhi (found in New  Dehli): first on the list was The Red Fort ...

During the 17th Century, The Muhal Emperor Shah Jahan moved the Capital City from Agra to Old Delhi, (re-named Shahjahanabad) where he oversaw the construction of his palace, close to The Yamuna RIver.

Originally known as "Qila-i-Mubarat (The Blessed Fort), the building started in 1638 and wasn't finished until 1648 - though future Mughals developed more structures within the grounds. It is the largest monument in Old Delhi, with the huge grounds encompasing the slightly smaller original Fort (Salimgarh) in 254.67 acres of land protected by high walls made from red sandstone.

In 1857, during the British iinvasion, the reigning Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar was exciled by the British Indian Government and thereby brought the Mughal reign to its end.

By 1863 the Brits had destroyed many of the buildings within the walls, filled up the gardens and sold off most if not all the valuables!? (no comment!!!)

Since 2007 The Red Fort has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site and every year on Indian Independence Day (Aug 15th) the Indian National flag is hoisted up to full mast!

Next we were back in NEW Delhi (confusing I know), where we went to have a quick look at The Houses of Parliament - they were closed.

Also called The Sansad Bhavan it was designed by the British Architects Edwin Lutyen (also known for his architecural designs in Hampstead Garden Suburb near me in North London!) and Herbert Baker, work actually started in 1921 and finally finished in 1927.

The building is huge, circular in shape, based on the Ashoka Chakra, which obviously is the depiction of The Buddhist Dharmachakra! (It looks like a bicycle wheel with 24 spokes). To get a clearer idea of what the Ashoka Chakra looks like, just take a gander at the Indian National Flag below, you'll see it sitting there in the middle.

The size of the building is enormous and houses the President of India, the Lok Sabha (House of the People AKA The Lower House) of which there are 552 members and the Rajya Sabha (Council of State AKA The Upper House) of which there are 250 members and yet there has been a proposal for a new building due to an inadequacy of Space.

We passed by Rajiv Gandhi's shrine - he became Prime Minister of India after his mother Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984 and unfortunately like his mother, in 1991, he too was assassinated. 

Shortly after he was posthumously awarded the highest accolade in India; The Bharat Ratna (The Jewel of India).

And finally we paid a visit to The Lotus Temple (Ba'hai House of Worship). 

To say we stuck out like a sore thumb would be an understatement; whilst queuing up to go inside we realised that people were quite obviously staring at us and blatantly taking photos of us too! Children were giggling and pointing, actually I think some of the adults were doing that too? Anyone would think they had never seen tourists before and we were obviously that with our extremely pale, white skin and me with not just curly hair, but bright ginger hair too!!! 

That night we went out for dinner with one of Claude's Couch surfing friends. Couch surfing is an internet site where people from all over the world offer travellers to their town/village a 'couch' to sleep on and/or to meet up for a meal and advice on the local area. 

The food was amazing, though I can't remember what any of it was called! Unfortunately it was hard to hold a conversation due to the exceesive noise from all the cars hooting outside. I realise now that there are no strict driving rules out here in India, basically you drive where ever there is space on the road (sometimes the pavement too!) and just hoot at anyone in your way, be it another car, a bike, pedestrian, goat or cow! Actually I lie, the cows are treated with respect, no one hoots at a cow ... All traffic stops for a cow and ONLY a cow!

Thankfully our time in Dehli came to an end yesterday morning - I won't miss it - and we set off for the airport at 7 30 to catch our flight to Bagdogra. 

The flight was fine, short and on time! However, the jeep ride from Bagdogra airport to the house where we are staying in Darjeeling made up for it, it took 6 hours due to a land slide that had occured a few days ago. And so we had to take the scenic route. Well at least it would have been scenic if it wasn't for the fact that the sun had set and there was heavy rain and a thick fog engulfing us. Thank god (and various deities out here) that our experienced driver managed to circumnavigate the car around the numerous pot holes and ensure that we didn't end up flying off the edge of the long and extremely winding road around the hillside.

Eventually we made it to the house, in one piece, where we were greeted by Sharan, Sinita and the three other volunteers from the Darjeeling Children's Trust. We were served a full Indian dinner - which I have to say would have been appetizing if it wasn't for the fact that I was still feeling extremely car sick from the bumpy car ride !

By the end of the evening I was ready for an early night: Darjeeling is freezing at this time of the year, particularly once the sun has set and there is NO central heating. And so I would like to point out to those of you that told me I didn't need to pack my winter woolies and bed socks, that if it wasn't for Jess lending me her hat I would have frozen to death in my bed!!!!

Suffice it to say, today was a brilliant day ... the weather was glorious and we managed to squeeze a lot in, but for now I will have to love you and leave you because I am about to be timed out on this computer, so until next time I will leave you with a lovely view of The Himalayas ...