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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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 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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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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More ghats

Hand painting by girl selling

View along ghats

Hindu God painting on the Ghats

Hindu God painting on the Ghats

Buffalo on the river Ganges

Poo cakes collected from ghats

We saw many burning bodies that we couldn’t take any photos of; out of respect for the families which we understood.

Some of the many cows

Old temple on the piss in Ganges

Lookingh along the ghats

Near Main ghat

Water fountain or bust water main ?

Sunset from the roof of our hotel

The locals here must have fantastic immune systems as many were bathing in the river here and considering the pollution, dead body parts and rotting animals in the river, you wouldn’t see us copying them!

written by  chrischarly on December 30, 2010 from Varanasi, India
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey
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Armed guards after bombing in December

Nice hairstyle

This evening we went for a walk once again along the Ganges River but this time at night to watch a celebration happening on the Main Ghat.

This little guy shocked by Puja

Puja on main ghat

Puja on Varanasi main ghat

Although we are still unsure what it was for, it was pretty nice.

Puja on main ghat

Puja on main ghat

Then, in the evening we celebrated the New Year with the Indian family we were staying with. Our first tee-total New Year!!!

Varanasi hotel family and Yoda

New Years Eve celebration, with NO BEER !

A strange evening; yet certainly memorable!

written by  chrischarly on December 31, 2010 from Varanasi, India
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey
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Charly with a big smile

This morning we left Varanasi and the strong smells behind us and headed to Katni where we stayed over night before going to Bandhavgarh National Park tomorrow.

Charly chilling on the train

Unsurpringly the train was late arriving by 4 hours which meant we arrived at 11:15pm!

The train, 2A, easy to get lost

Not exactly ideal in a huge town!

Chris and his dot

We found the hotel that was supposedly booked for us fairly easily only to discover that The National Park hadn't made a booking for us!

Some bloke stuck red dots on our head

So we wandered aimlessly around the town until we finaly found somewhere that wasn't fully booked to sleep... Long day...

written by  chrischarly on January 1, 2011 from Katni, India
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey
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Chris with his new Inida friends

After waking up bright and early we caught a train from Katni to Umaria and shared a jeep with 2 friendly Canadians we met to Bandhavgarh National Park.

After a mamouth climb, Charly on train top bunk !

We are staying in a lovely hotel and now ready for our first safari tomorrow afternoon; fingers crossed we see a tiger!

written by  chrischarly on January 2, 2011 from Umaria, India
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey
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Ready to go see the tigers

Lucky hat, or not so it seems

Tala Zone 1 entrance at Bandhavgarh NP

More amazing views at Bandhavgarh NP

In the back of our Gypsy Jeep

Amazing views in Bandhavgarh NP

Chris and Charly on the hunt for Tigers

Saw plenty of deer,

Sambar deer

More tiger food

Male spotted deer taking a break

Spotted deer eating

Spotted deer looking out for tigers

Spotted deer

monkeys,

Monkey arse

Cheeky monkey

tiger footprints

Pugmarks, they do exist !

and an owl though.

1 of 2 owls hidding in a tree

Yet not as exciting...

written by  chrischarly on January 3, 2011 from Umaria, India
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey
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Jackal

It all started with a knock on our door at 05.30am. After a terrible nights sleep - due to insanely cold weather they are having here - we dragged ourselves out of bed, both feeling rotten, and prepared for our first morning safari. To protect ourselves from the bitter cold amplified by the open top jeep our attire went as follows:-

- trousers - CJ x 2, CP x 3
- t-shirts - CJ x 2, CP x 2
- shirt - CJ x 1 (lucky safari shirt), CP x 1
- fleece - both x 1
- cardigan CP x 1
- the big double blanket from our bed
- and of course Chris' lucky'ish Tilley Hat

After all of this prep we still froze to death; there was ice on the ground and we were driving through the park with the full force of the icy wind in our faces.

Elephant rides in Bandhavgarh NP

We had a new guide who was determined to find tigers, and so once we heard of a sighting he directed our driver (now called Colin McRae) to head there top speed. Now let me explain that there are 6 of us in an open top small jeep, driving on pretty rough tracks, all of us holding on for fear of leaving the vehicle at the next bump. It warmed us up slightly at least.

To summarise, we froze, got scared to death and didn't see any tigers. Oh well, 3 more to go, fingers crossed!

The pics in this entry are from our limited sightings, plus it was too cold to operate the camera. We did see a Jackal, and some of the elephants they use to hunt for tigers within the forest, plus the usual Sambar and Spotted deer, and some Warthogs (too quick to take pics of).

Scary spider in our bathroom

Last but not least was the spider Charly found in the bathroom that she promptly decided was going to eat her and went off to get help from the staff (whilst I laid in bed). When they finally came they brought a heater (her hysterical English not getting through), so I stepped out of bed and used my size 10 to dispatch the poor fellow.
Until next time...................CJ

written by  chrischarly on January 4, 2011 from Umaria, India
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey
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