On the train at last

Charly freezing on train from Agra to Varanasi

The train journey was nowhere near as comfortable as the previous one as we were in ‘Sleeper Class’ which is lower than third class!

Station retirement rooms

More poo cakes

Agra train station, jobs going for rubbish collectors !

Charly' interview smile

It was freezing cold and no one would give us any blankets to use so we used our thin travel towels and shivered to sleep.

Nice clean village by train track

But then after a restless sleep we finally made it to Varanasi. It wasn’t at all what we had expected. We knew that it was a big city so prepared ourselves as best as we could, but to be honest it was a right hole.

More pollution on the Ganges

Boating on the Ganges

Bathing in the Ganges, nice !

After taking a rick-shaw and a very long walk we gladly found our hotel, had something to eat and fall fast asleep even though it was only 3pm in the afternoon.

Chilling in our lovely room with mice, rats, lizards and mozzies

Our lovely room ?!

When we had woken up we discovered that a monkey had been into our room through our windows and stolen all our cigarettes as well as a candle! Then not much later we saw a tiny mouse run across our room, shortly followed by a huge rat! Our room to be honest fits right into Varanasi; just take a look at the photos! There are also tons of mosquitoes which have even bitten me a few times on my face and loads of lizards which we don’t mind as much and even a cow in the front room!

The cow that followed us into our hotel, honest !

But regardless of all that we have an amazing view and stayed in watching films in the evening on our laptop.

written by  chrischarly on December 29, 2010 from Lucknow, India
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey
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The bus journey was really horrible though and as well as being really late, it was a long lasting 7 hours on a small reclining seat with no leg room.

The windows weren’t insulated and mine was even broken meaning that it kept sliding open! It was freezing! We got barely any sleep and were exhausted once we arrived in manic Delhi, which was in fact cleaner than we expected.

We luckily arrived in plenty of time so went to a little café to wait for our train pretty excited about seeing the Taj finally!

However, our luck still wasn’t to be with us as it then was delayed by 3 hours! Then when the train eventually arrived named the ‘Taj express’ was a joke. It was in fact the slowest train ever taking 2 ½ hours longer than scheduled!

So by the time we eventually arrived in Agra, left our luggage at the train station then walked to lock away our hand luggage as we couldn’t take anything in with us it was almost 4pm and a long queue for tickets and entry greeted us.

So unfortunately our long day meandering around the Taj wasn’t to be, although we did manage a rushed visit and it was very very beautiful; well worth a visit…

The queue to enter the Taj

Taj entrance gate

1st sight of Taj

Taj

Taj

Taj close-up by Chris

Taj

Taj

Hasn't she grown

Chris posing at Taj

Charly posing at Taj

Inventive photography by Chris

Charly posing at the Taj

Us at the Taj

Charly on Princess Diana bench

Millions of Inidans queing for inside

Taj

Taj

Sunset at Taj Mahal

Then we met up with some friends in the evening for dinner before catching our evening train at 11:30pm!

written by  chrischarly on December 28, 2010 from Agra, India
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey
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Wonky house in the fog

Wow... What a difficult and stressful day! After waking up at 4:30am to find our taxi-driver already waiting for us to go to the train station we were in a mad rush to get ready as quick as possible...

Poo cakes and poo makers

We then arrived at the station in plenty of time for our train. We were pretty excited to see the Taj Mahal so really looking forward to getting there; to discover that our friggin' train has been cancelled!

Man taking a break to look at train

Gutted... We were so upset! They also said that no trains would be going to Agra all day so we are stuck in Jaipur! This also meant that we wouldn't make our evening train to Varanassi!

Evil squirrel

So our first plan was to head back to Sanjay's and get some sleep and relax a little, so we got back into the rip-off taxi and went straight back to where we started...

Parrot feeding chicks

Once we woke up the second time we had a look on the internet to see if we could get refunded on our tickets, however, as we booked all of them through travel agents we had to go back to the same travel agents to cancel.

Camel rides

Although this was a pain, it was ok for our first ticket, Jaipur-Agra as we booked it in town, so we got most of the money back. Yet the second ticket, Agra- Varanassi was a little more difficult as we booked it in Kerala, right down the south of India and it wasn't cheap either!

Male parrot protecting the tree

We finally worked out how to get a refund, by getting them to pay the money into Sanjay's account and then he would transfer it into ours, yet we only got a fraction of the money back! So unfair!

Farmers carrying reeds

So pretty upset and unsure whether we would get to see the Taj Mahal, Varanassi or even the National Park which we'd already paid for, we worked out that we could catch a bus to Delhi and then a train from Delhi to Agra and then a train from Agra to Varanassi.

View from train

Such a mission but there's just so much we want to see and you can't go to India and miss these 3 things, especially as they were the ones we were most looking forward to!...

written by  chrischarly on December 27, 2010 from Delhi, India
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey
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The local rubbish collection in Jaipur

I don't know what I've eaten or caught but I spent pretty much the whole day in bed getting up only to run to the loo :'( Not exactly the perfect Boxing Day...

We are catching our train to Agra to see the Taj Mahal tomorrow, however, there are many protesters about resulting in most of the trains being cancelled and roads closed. So maybe we may just be in Jaipur a few more nights as the last protest lastest 20 days!

written by  chrischarly on December 26, 2010 from Jaipur, India
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey
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Our Christmas tree stacked with presents!!!

It was so lovely being woken up bright and early by the little girl all excited to discover that Father Christmas has been and delivered presents in India!

Anu, Lakshita and Sanyay on Christmas morning

Anu and Lakshita opening pressies

Chris' Christmas pressie

Although we are staying with a Hindu family; they did everything in their power to ensure that we felt at home by making an extra special effort to make Christmas perfect which was lovely.

A parade for a famous Hindi priest

A parade for a famous Hindi priest

A parade for a famous Hindi priest

A parade for a famous Hindi priest

Is that guy carrying horse hair?

For Christmas lunch we had the traditional meal of pasta with chips made by Chris and for dinner we had tradtional Indian food made by Anu... Delicious!

Sanjay flying a kite

Sanjay fixing a new kite

Charly in her new Punjabi Suit

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

written by  chrischarly on December 25, 2010 from Jaipur, India
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey
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Chris and Charly at Amber Palace

Amber Palace

I think he is leaning away ?!

Chris sitting right at front of bus on way to Amber Palace

Elephant taxi at Amber Palace

Charly getting up close and personal with elephant taxi at Amber Palace

Today we went for another walk around Jaipur going to The Amber Fort and The Water Palace.

A clear day where we can see for miles

View from Amber Palace

View within Amber Palace

View of Nargarh Fort from Amber Palace

We had again a fantastic day but doing a great deal of walking so we were exhausted!

Water Palace Jaipur

The Gorgeous Water Palace in Jaipur

Fish in the Water Palace lake

Then later as it's Christmas Eve we played Father Christmas and sneaked out once everyone had gone to bed at midnight to put some Christmas presents under the tree.

written by  chrischarly on December 24, 2010 from Jaipur, India
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey
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Entrance to Hawa Mahal

Hawa Mahal from street

Inside Hawa Mahal

View from top of Hawa Mahal

Chris posing for the Indians to take photos of him!

Me and a little Indian girl

Top of Hawa Mahal

A pedal rick-shaw! What a work-out!

Today we took a walk around Jaipur nick-named 'The Pink City as the majority of the building are painted pink.

Touching the top of the palace

Hawa Mahal

Entering the Hawa Mahal

Jantar-Mantar, very old astrology/astronomy centre

Rubbish just dumped in a beautiful place

Jantar-Mantar, very old astrology/astronomy centre

Entrance to the City Palace was 300rps each!

So instead we took these 2 photos off of post-cards to pretend we saw it!

We went exploring a little to see some of the sights on offer.

written by  chrischarly on December 23, 2010 from Jaipur, India
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey
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The bustling streets of Jaipur

Chaotic traffic

Our first proper long stay in a city- Jaipur

After a really smooth train journey where we both slept solidly for more than 10 hours we arrived safely in Jaipur! It was a very comfortable train journey that was very quiet and it hardly felt as if we were moving!

A straight to the point sign!

Amber palace over-looking Jaipur city

Jaipur is a huge bustling city full of character and life yet so far doesn't seem as chaotic and polluted as Mumbai which is a relief!

Oytside our home in Jaipur

Cows in the middle of the highway

Massive monkeys taking over an Indian home

We managed to find Sanjay's and Annu's place quite easily about 9km away on the outskirts of the city and we were delighted with the warm and hospitable reception we recieved straight away.

Making us feel like home by having a tree although we're living with a Hindu family

Our Indian Christmas tree

Annu, Sanjay and Me after we finished decorating the tree

Think it will be a great Chrismas here.

written by  chrischarly on December 22, 2010 from Surat, India
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey
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Our first sleeper train.......very long !

Still our first sleeper train....still very long !

The moon at sunset taken from the train

Then after a little wait we got onto a sleeper train to take us to Jaipur where we will be spending Christmas with an Indian family!

written by  chrischarly on December 21, 2010 from Mumbai, India
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey
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Chris trying to set timer on camera, not very well !

After enjoying our last day with Del and Becks we took a sleeper bus from Goa to Mumbai taking around 14 hours!

On the sleeper bus from Goa to Mumbai, very cosy !

It was a long journey and instead of being really bumpy like the previous bus, we payed extra to guarantee a bus with air suspension but instead of us bouncing up and down the whole way we felt as if we were on a boat swaying from side to side.

Charly relaxing on the sleeper bus

Note to anyone travelling in India: - always take the train if possible, it is so much smoother a ride and in fact cheaper!

written by  chrischarly on December 20, 2010 from Pernem, India
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey
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