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Chaos, burning bodies,, Hindu ceremony and a crazy tuk-tuk ride. Cheap and expensive food. Today had lots of excitement.

After the washing finished and we hung it out, A$4//load, including powder, we took a tuk-tuk to near the burning ghat (riverside), with an instruction that it was 5 minutes walk down this crowded road. We followed Jamie’s navigation, which was tested at times with very narrow, weaving alleys only wide enough for a scooter and person to pass, but we got there, where we were immediately “helped” by a self described cow herder (“not a guide”, he said).

He was quite informative, and we saw many cremations, including later on the beach, and the “eternal flame”, which is a fire kept alight for ?a thousand years. Then he took us to the golden temple, but it was in the middle of a demolition site and accessed down these narrow alleys. Our families spider sense tingled, and Alan went on, whilst Bec and Jamie held back. Then Jamie appears, yells, “Alan, we’re leaving now” and we all scramble over the demolition to the alley. One of the walls near Jamie had collapsed, nothing endangering us, but enough to confirm that we shouldn’t be there. The guide managed to catch up, and we paid him 100 rupees, which he protested wasn’t enough to help the poor people. Not for himself you understand.

To get out, we followed some army soldiers, who still had a couple of false starts finding the way, and then came out into another narrow alley, with mourners lined for hundreds of meters on one side, and us, the scooters and bikes all jostling on the other side.

We had lunch at an overpriced restaurant here, and didn’t really get enough to fill us up. We had wanted to go to Sarnath archeological dig, but thought it was too late to make it, so had an hour to kill. Alan wanted a coffee, and we looked in a couple of shops before settling on one, which also served over priced coffee and chips. But they did take a long time doing the cooking, and the toilets were clean.

Then we walked down river to Assi ghat, past some boat builders, past the cows on the beach (Note for Sandy: they are everywhere) to where the evening Hindu ceremony is held. Pizza beforehand, and Becky had another cookie milkshake (she reports it as good, but not as good as the Oreo shake). The Hindu ceremony was good, with lots of twirling of flaming cobra statues and candles, finishing with lighting candles and putting them into the river. There was a small crowd, but it didn’t have the wow factor of the festival that puts candles on the river.

Then we happily found a tuk-tuk to take us home, at what we thought was a reasonable price of 200 rupees. The tuk-tuks are cheaper than Delhi, and we haven’t haggled them down as the price was what the hostel said was reasonable. But he was a crazy driver and pulled out in front of cars. We had one “thump” early in the trip, but that might not have been his fault, and I was feeling nervous. Then he answered his phone, holding it with this neck, and raced headlong through a manically busy intersection. Then he ran up the back of another tuk-tuk, and did say something to the other driver, who didn’t seem perturbed. Then driving down the wrong side of the road (common here, but it was a divided road). But we are home now, and the hostel is comfortable, and the washing is dry. The hostel provides free drinking water from a little wall mounted sophisticated filtration unit (RO, micro filter, UV for those technically interested).

Jamie is posting photos on Google Photos.

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“Everything” is closed in Delhi on Mondays – so the museums and some temples were closed.

We took a tuk-tuk to deer park, with the original water supply for the city and an early university and mosque, which was a lovely spot.

Then tuk-tuk to Qtub Minar, an imposing Morgul tower column that dominates this flat city. We had our first street stall lunch which was delicious and very filling for around A$10. We did better this morning at the train station with a filling breakfast, including the local air filled bread, for A$2.60.

We were short of time, but the tuk-tuk said too long in the traffic, so we took the metro to the sikh temple and a nice, but not extraordinary catholic cathedral. Then back to the hostel by metro to pick up our luggage, a walk back to the metro, and then dinner at Burger King (pretty good) and comfortably on the train in time. Boarding the train was chaotic as passengers ran along to board before the train had stopped. The photo above is about 20 min before boarding and already the platform is crowded. But we had a pleasant First Class ride, however without much sleep as the train went fairly fast and rattled and rolled. We shared our berth with a young Indian girl to start, and her phone kept ringing, probably her parents calling to make sure she was awake to get off. Then we had a snorer come in, so not much rest. The hostel is very nice however and the train ran on time. We are just waiting to finish our washing, and then off to explore Varanasi.

The electrical system at the hostel was antiquated, but did have what looked like phase indicating lamps to indicate failed phases. But lots of unshielded connections everywhere.

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Arrived last night on JetAirways flight from Kathmandu and had arranged a transfer from the airport through the hostel. The male hostel receptionist had us in a deep discussion on love life, “Romeo and Juliet”, during the check in process. He was 23 and two years without Juliet and his family was teasing him. The hostel is good – upmarket for hostels. Free breakfast. No tourist information, so we went off for the day after a couple of brief discussions with girls in the rooms. One is going to study sustainability in India, followed by a yoga course, whilst getting some income managing the social media feed of a USA based company. The modern world!

After breakfast at 8:30, we headed to the metro and then to old Delhi. There were many temples and we got picked up by a one legged man who was a walking tour guide. So he showed us to the Jama Masjid (mosque) and back to the metro. Becky struggled to keep up with him. Jama Masjid is a splendid and very impressive example of Morgul architecture. There are crowded markets everywhere and Alan bought a new watch (A$2) and Becky new bud earphones (A$0.60).

The presidential palace is British architecture and impressive domes, round buildings and plenty of space. It oozes grandeur. Luckily the complex was pedestrian only today. By this time we were hungry and decided on a tuk tuk to India gate. The driver convinced us to visit a restaurant and then tried to get us into a gem store. The restaurant was A$10 per curry, so too expensive. But we did see a wonderful Sikh procession with ritual fighting and the guru gave us a packet of yummy biscuits. The city is alive today with the celebrations (yesterday) for India National day on 26 Jan.

The India Gate was crowded and so another tuk-tuk, past the Gandhi museum (looks interesting) to Humayun’s Tomb. It was seriously impressive and we spent a couple of hours there. The queue for tickets was chaotic, but they did take credit card. As always, the foreigner price is 20x the local price, but the local queue was 100 meters long, whilst the foreigners was only 3 people long.

The metro app said 30 min to get home, but it took 30 min to walk to the nearest metro, one hour on the metro, and 15 min walk home. We bought dinner at the hostel for about $14 for the three of us. Everyone wants an early night after the midnight night last night.

This morning we were up and ready to leave by 8.00am as wewere trekking to the Australian Camp on the Annapurna Circuit.  We drove for about 1 ½ hours to reach a smallvillage over very bumpy roads.  They areconstructing the road so there is a lot of dust and rocks.  It will eventually be the road to China.  We reached a small village and picked up oursleeping bags or rather a porter carried them on a strap around his head!Picked up our bamboo walking poles and began our ascent.  And we kept going up and up and up andup!!  It was challenging especially forLexie who had developed a head cold overnight and was finding it difficult tobreathe.

We stopped at a small village after a couple of hours wherewe watched some incredibly huge eagles flying about us!  It was amazing.  We also watched some ladies have rocks loadedonto baskets on their backs that were supported around their heads.  They were building a new path.  I asked Anup if I could take pictures ofthem.  He said he had mixed responseswhen he asked them.  Two were worriedthat they were wearing their ‘working’ clothes and if I put it on Facebooktheir sons might see!

We continued up and up and up again finally stopping at thevillage of Damphus for lunch.  Youwouldn’t believe it, but the children had deep fried mars bars and snickershere!!

Again, we started more up hill bits!!  By this stage Lexie was quite tired (as weall were) but she has decided to move bedrooms again, so the talk ofredecorating kept her going.

Our weary bunch finally arrived at the Australian Camp about5pm.  Unfortunately, the clouds were in,so we couldn’t see as much of the Annapurna Range as we had hoped but it wasstill incredible being close to the mountains.

The camp had been booked out by 30 Japanese tourists whowere all very friendly and wanted to take our pictures.  This meant we were in tents for thenight.  Much to Lexie’s delight they hadalready been put up!!  We mainly stayedin the dining room as it was cold by this stage and the children were thrilledthat we could connect to the Wi-Fi – I couldn’t believe it!  We were all into our sleeping bags early.

Up at 6.30 the next morning to see the sunrise.  We were not having much luck with weather andthe mountains were still covered in cloud. The sun struggled to get through the clouds, but we thought you couldsee a bit more than we had seen last night. Anyway, it looked spectacular to us.

After a light breakfast we packed up and started our hikedown the other side for about 1hr 15 mins. From here we were picked up and driven back to Pokhara which took about2 hours over very bumpy roads.  Arriving back,we checked into our hotel, arranged for some washing to be done (plenty oflaundry service here) and then taken for lunch at a Mediterranean restaurantoverlooking the lake.  We were encouragedby Anup to try a Mediterranean steaming pipe. We had mixed results and lots of laughs.!!

By now Lexie was ready for a rest and we took her and Becback to hotel while the rest of us went to the largest peace stupa in Nepal(more climbing of steps) it was impressive and so were the views overPokhara.  From here we came back to theLake and hired a boatman to take us around the Lake.  It was lovely, and we saw some Cormorants,monkeys, an owl and kingfisher before returning to our hotel. 

Tonight, we were taken out to dinner and a culturalshow.  It was pleasant, but I thinkeveryone is a bit tired after a couple of big days.  Emma has now got a cold too.  We were able to pick up cold tablets at alocal pharmacy.  A bargain at 30 for90c.  Everyone is now tucked up in bed,the washing was collected, and we will be leaving at 8.00am tomorrow.

We had asked for window seats, so we could see some views ofEverest and the Himalayas.  Unfortunately,none of us got window seats and Alan was the only one on that side of the plane!  He had a very nice economics student sittingnext to him at the window who swapped as we were going past Everest, so he wasable to take a couple of snaps and said it would have had to have been one ofhis best flights ever!

We arrived in Kathmandu and figured out the visa system (wehad already done them online, but we still needed to pay for them).  Their eftpos machine wasn’t working so we hadthe children diving into their boots for there ‘emergency’ money ha ha!  They did take the last of our Singapore $$which was good. 

We were met at Kathmandu by Anup and Ajit our guides for ourtime in Nepal.  They walked us to thedomestic terminal to catch our flight to Pokhara.  They even managed to get us on an earlierflight which was great!  They both speakexcellent English and are very friendly and flexible with our plans. 

After arriving in Pokhara and checking in to our hotel. Anupand Ajit took us for a traditional Nepalese Lunch – Dahl baht! Sitting on thefloor.  Some of us can’t cross our legs!!

The rest of the afternoon was our own and we spent theafternoon wandering Pokhara which is very touristy and set up for the trekkingbusiness.  If you want anything fromNorth Face you can get it here.  Pokharaalso has a very pretty lake which we wandered along.

It was feeding time again and we were taken to a westernstyle restaurant.  Lexie was very excitedthat she could order pizza!

After getting of the train at Hasimara feeling very pleasedwith ourselves we caught a ‘taxi’ to the town of Jaigon on the IndianBorder.  By taxi we mean someone’s car(six seater with no luggage size) but we all squish in with the driver and ourluggage for the 45 minute ride.  We hadmade contact with our guide by this stage who must have been wondering where wewere as the train was two hours late getting into Hasimara – this is India 😊

At the border we had to go to the Indian security check (aman wrote our names from our passports in a book) then to immigration to departIndia – more form filling!  Good job thechildren can do their own! From here we thought we were in Bhutan but then westopped in the town on Phuentshaoling to get our Bhutanese visa’s – moresmiling at camera’s. We have noticed a difference between India and Bhutanalready.  It is much quieter with lessbeeping of horns and some no horn signs, beautifully carved buildings and muchcleaner.

By now it was about 3pm so our guide Sonam and driver tookus for a Bhutanese lunch – incredible, most of it was quite spicy butdelicious.  There was a plate with somecucumbers, carrots and what looked like green beans, Jamie however discoveredthey were not in fact green beans but green chillies when he happily munched onone.  Well you can just imagine!! He saideven his legs started tingling.

We started our 5-hour trip to Paro which for some reason Ithought would be straight! But no, Bhutan has lots and lots and lots ofmountains doesn’t it and hardly any straight bits!!  Our driver was excellent at pulling overquickly for me!! Next time I will be flying!! The kids were great, and Emmasaid she has never meditated (I will not be sick) so much in her life!  By the time we reached our accommodation itwas about 9pm and our guide wanted to feed us again, but we just wanted to goto bed.  It was also freezing but theviews of the lights we could see were amazing! You could see the fort and watch tower all lit up – spectacular.

Next morning, we were up early, and Emma informed us thather phone said it was -12!  Today we weregoing to climb up to the Tigers Nest Monastery. We headed off on a short drive to begin our trek at 2400m it was stillfreezing!!  The climb up was one of thesteepest we have done, and it was incredible how much you could feel theeffects of the altitude.  Even Emma andJamie felt it.  It took us 3 ½ hours toreach the tea house where we were served cups of sweet tea and what looked likeSao’s covered in sugar.  From here wedecided that Emma, Jamie and Alan would continue to the monastery a further 2hours return, so the girls and I happily chatted at the tea house, which hadamazing views of the monastery.

At the monastery the others could go inside but no photoswere allowed.  They were also told thestory of how the monastery came to be there. Alan said it was very confusing but there is basically three stories,first there is an evil spirit who was defeated by a good guy who had a daggerwhich he gave it magical powers by meditation, then some centuries later theyput the temple there to honour this person, the third is a lady went intolabour in the village and walked up to the cave to have her child and thischild then became a monk.

The three musketeers returned after taking some incrediblephoto’s, we had lunch at the tea house and made our way down, much quicker onlytaking 50 minutes with shaky legs.

As everything closes here at 4pm we were not able to go intothe fort but drove to it and took some nice photos of it and the watchtower.  We then went to a local art shopwhich had interesting decorations around the door then we had a wander alongthe main street checking out the shops. All the buildings are beautifully carved and painted.

Returning to the hotel we were ready for some dinner, a hotshower and bed as we had to be up at 5am the next morning to catch our flightto Kathmandu.  Unfortunately, we were todiscover both our rooms had no hot water at all which disappointed Lexie whowas looking forward to a long hot soak in the bath!

Emma was up early the next morning to discover the water hadcome back on and we were already in the car at 5.30am to get to the airport.

We made our Kolkata flight after running from one end of Dubai airport to the other, we weren’t the last on the plane but we were a bit worried on the way!

Arriving in India was exciting and we waited for ages to get through customs. After picking up our bags we went in hunt of an atm and government taxi. Well the fun began, there is no atm in the terminal despite what google says And the taxi and Uber don’t take cards or were not working. They told us there was an atm outside so the girls stayed with the bags while the boys went searching. What the didn’t tell us is they operate a one way system and once you are outside that’s where you stay. So there was jamie and Alan jumping up and down trying to attract our attention. Alan managed to sweet talk his way in as he has a boarding pass in his pocket. We found the atm and joined the taxi ticket queue. There was some confusion over where we were staying. There is not much English spoken in this area! We found our correct taxi and jamie, Lexie and I headed off in one watching Alan, Emma and Becky looking for there’s. The ride was pretty eye opening with lots of beeping and the feeling that we could be squished at any moment. Our driver was not quite sure where he was taking us but fortunately Jamie has downloaded google maps and was able to direct him to our destination. Alan was waiting on the pavement madly waving at us.

Our accomodation and hosts were excellent! We are the only white people in this area. We were pretty hungry by this stage so we headed out to a place recommended by our hosts. It was great and we agreed that we would try different dishes while we are here. I am finding the food particularly spicy but Lexie is right into it! along with the others. We also tried to find a SIM card while were out but no luck.

We returned to the guesthouse to use the free wifi and order an Uber to take us to the Victoria Memorial. Well it turned up finally, we are learning this is India! This driver likes his music and we had an interesting ride through back streets and at one stage we were side by side with a tuk tuk that had been pushed down a pothole and got stuck.

The Victoria Memorial was huge. Built in the early 1900’s in memory of Queen Victoria. We spent a long time walking around the grounds. Being the only white tourists around, we were very popular for being asked for a ‘selfie’. Forgot to mention earlier that one of the air hostesses told emma she looked like Lindsay Lohan. I noticed the women’s dress is so colourful here, with most still wearing the sari.

We then walked across to St Paul’s cathedral which was very impressive. By this stage we had seen enough and thought it was time to return home. So we trekked back to the Victoria Memorial as I had seen a free wifi sign and we thought we could order an Uber but they wouldn’t let us back in, next we were told to walk to the taxi tank two minutes up the road which we couldn’t find so Alan suggested we walk to the Maccas he has spotted on the map to see if they had wifi. We were really experiencing the real Kolkata walking along at night. The people here fascinate me and there is so much activity. Along the way we passed an ‘international’ hotel with free wifi so we ducked in and they very kindly ordered us two Uber’s.

After returning home Becky and Lex were happy to have a shower and go to bed. The rest of us went to have dinner, we had the most delicious sweet naan as well as other dishes tonight. Emma and Jamie were happy to head back to the guesthouse after dinner, they are finding the smog irritates their eyes, while Alan and I were happy to wander along the street. We found the local chipati maker and came across some men playing cards and another playing a game like pool with small disks. We returned home tired but happy.

Kolkata day 2

The guesthouse provided a free breakfast this morning. Banana, eggs, roti and Dahl which was very nice. We had arranged for a driver today to take us out. Our first stop was the vodaphone shop to organise a sim, however we had to wait for it to open -5minutes, then Jamie and Alan went in to see what they needed. Half an our latter they were back out with no sim!they needed passport, visa, letter of recommendation (which the guesthouse will do) and a passport photo. Back to this later.

We were on our way again. First Ramish took us to the Dakshinewar Kali Temple the oldest Hindu temple in Kolkata. We weren’t allowed our shoes or cameras inside. Inside was amazing with some small shrines and larger ones. Most people were carrying small baskets of offerings. There was chanting and ringing of bells in some and touching of the shrine. There would have been thousands there. It is amazing to see the devotion to their faith.

Outside the temple we watched people bathing in the river and took some photos again with people wanting selfies. We bought some sweet biscuits from the stalls that were served in baskets with leaves, and had a wander around the market. It was also here the girls were educated in the difference between number 1 and number 2 toilets 😮

From here Ramish took us to Eco Park, a tourist park which didn’t have a lot but did have replicas of the seven wonders of the world. We spent a long time here because we walked from one end to the other. It wouldn’t be recommended.

Alan was keen to get onto the SIM card as we have no way of contacting our guide in Bhutan, so we dropped him at the guesthouse house and asked Ramish to take the rest of us to the Motherhouse. The kids were worried about Alan going of by himself and being back in time to get to the train.

The Motherhouse was the home of Mother Teresa and where her tomb is. It is also home to the missionaries of Charity still practising today. It was very quiet and peaceful and interesting for the girls having been to a Sisters of Charity school. It would have been nice to spend more time in the museum there. But alas it was back to the guesthouse to hopefully pick up Alan.

No he wasn’t there! But we still had time. About 15 minutes later he arrives grinning with success! We all pile into Ramish’s car, Jamie in the back with the bags, the four girls across the middle seat and Alan in the front and set off for Sealdar Railway station. Lo and behold we run into a political rally!!

We finally made it and oh boy there are a gazillion Indians trying to catch trains. I didn’t have time to take photos we were so busy just trying to stick together!! We were the only whites. We found a second class waiting room and were ushered inside. Jamie and Alan went of to find out what platform we had to go to. The children were excellent at getting their bags around people and up and down stairs. We quickly picked up some dinner and made our way to platform 9B it took some time to find our carriage with all the people standing around. We found our sleeper seats which are basic but comfortable enough Alan’s seat was two carriages back but he could walk up to us. A very nice young man with good English came and chatted to us. He was very happy they had beaten the Aussies in the cricket! He also gave us a good tip that the train will only stop at Hasimara station for 2 minutes so we need to be quick getting off! He also told us we can ask the ticket man about moving Alan which we did and he is now in our carriage.

We have been on the train since 8.30pm last night it is now just after midday the next day. The train is running about 2 hours late but ours is the next stop about an hour away. We have had lots of laughs, braved the drop toilets while the train is moving, slept a little, had an Indian train breakfast and caught up on the blog, currently typing this on my phone with two fingers!! Phone needs plugging in will post this when we have wifi.

We arrived in Singapore at 7.30am after an ok flight. We didn’t get as much sleep as we were hoping and there was some patches of turbulence but we were ready to make the most of the day.

We caught the MRT after purchasing our day tourist tickets and headed straight for Little India to a market place for breakfast. Everyone was keen to try something authentic- chicken rice, butter chicken, Dahl, rice and wonton noodles.

We then had wander around the fresh food markets. Aahh the smells, Jen loves it, Lexie not so much! From here we explored a bit more. Becky was feeling the heat but was a real trooper. We enjoyed the colourful buildings and I enjoyed the small shops that reminded me of the old Singapore, didn’t see a plastic buckets shop though.

From Little India we took the MRT to Chinatown. They were preparing for Chinese New Year so decorations were out. Lexie was on a mission to find some ‘white rabbits’ (sweets) so she took us to the supermarket she went to when she was here in September and success! The girls enjoyed having their photos with some squishy pigs as it’s the year of the pig. It was lovely to see the old shoe menders which bought back child hood memories

It was back on the MRT and of at Orchard Road and a walk to the National Museum, passed the YMCA which was nothing like I remember 🙁. The museum only has one free exhibition which was ‘different’ but we enjoyed the air conditioning. We then had a wander along Orchard Road to hunt down Lexie’s special noodles – she should run eating tours!! Unfortunately they were not found and instead we just had to eat some char sui buns -yum!

On to the MRT again – we are experts now! And headed for the Merlion which looked too clean to be the original but it was a great spot for photos along the water and nice to see the old bum boats. Marina Bay Sands looks very imposing in the background. While we were having a sit down Jamie was approached by some visiting Hong Kong students to answer some questions.

It was then that Alan suggested that we take the short walk to Gardens by the Bay. We all know what Alan’s ‘short’ walks mean and we had just about disintegrated in the heat by the time we got there! We did see a police motorcade on the way there and wondered who it might be. Jamie thought it was the Czech Republic flag on the car. We also stopped in at a shopping centre to pick up water and saw an impressive chandelier.

The Gardens by the Bay trees were impressive and the orchids were lovely. By this stage it was time for us to get back to the airport and so it was back on the MRT and to the airport. The children all thought Singapore was great, very clean, orderly and easy to get around. A fantastic but tiring day.