India

Upon arrival in Delhi we were faced with many "red" indians. This confused the historically and geographically challenged Renee who thought that Red Indians were from North America. It seems that we arrived on the day of Holi which is a annual festival where everyone takes to the streets and throws coloured powder (usually red) at one another, including complete strangers. As a result, everyone and everything is turned a very distinct shade of red until they have a good wash. This was actually quite convenient in determining which restaurants were safe to eat at... if the staff were still red several days after Holi it implied a certain lack of regular washing practices!


The source of India's strawberry milk... One of many cows on the streets of Delhi caught in the Holi celebrations.


We wandered around Parhaganj (Delhi) feeling quite disorientated for the first day. We found out later that this is a very seedy part of the capital, which probably contributed to the initial culture shock we experienced. Despite hearing stories of cows wandering the streets of India, we didn't really expect them to be wandering on the main streets! We have no idea as to where they get their food from... whatever they eat it can't agree with their stomach too well as evidenced by the multitude of sloppy cow pats everywhere - Just one of many things which make the aroma of the cities interesting to say the least.


The ever present army of "auto rickshaws" that are quite insistent that no foreigner travels anywhere on foot


Red Fort, Delhi. There are no shortage of forts & palaces to visit... One or two was enough for us.

The next day we figured out how the trains work and travelled to Punjab to visit our friend Sunil who we met while he was working at Royal Perth a couple of years ago. We stayed at the Christian Medical College Hospital in Ludhiana where he works. Within 24 hours of arrival we had been introduced to almost every doctor and professor at the hospital and were even attending continuing eduation sessions. They even had a special morning tea to welcome the "guests from Australia".

We spent the weekend travelling to the Shivalik Mountain range, which are the foothills of the Himalayas. The only way Tim could rememer what the mountains were called was to imagine them as icecreams and think that you "shiver" when you "lick" them. We stayed in a small town called Kasauli. It was an absolutely gorgeous place with quaint cobblestone roads and magnificent views of the mountains. We could see the snow topped lesser Himalayan range from our vantage point. Together we trekked up to a lookout which we thought was called "Monkey Point", but it turns out is actually called "Manky Point" - not quite so flattering a title.



When we arrived in the village of Kasauli, Sunil informed us that his plan for accommodation was to knock on the Anglican Ministers front door and ask him if he had a guest house available. He had never met the pastor and didn't know where he lived, so we wandered around the little mountain top town in the dark asking people for directions to his house. When we finally did find it, it soon became evident that there was not in fact have a guest room available... so the poor man set off in to the freezing cold dark night to find us intruding strangers a hotel room (probably just to get us out of his house so that he could go to bed!!). Sunil decided to accompany him, leaving Tim & I perched uncomfortably on the couch with the pastors wife, with whom the only communication we could manage was mutual smiles.


Sunil, India's self proclaimed Casanova!




Tim contemplating the meaning of life... or how he's going to manage to climb all the way down the mountain again now he's at the top.


Lesser Himalayas as seen from the "Shiver-lick" mountains.

Sunil took amazingly good care of us and took us to a number of restaurants and coffee shops that wouldn't be accessible to the vast majority of Indian people. Under his influence (we didn't need much convincing) we ate much more chocolate than we have consumed for the duration of our trip and "watched" a Bollywood movie in Hindi.

We left Sunil and travelled to Jaipur by sleeper train which was an unexpectedly pleasant journey. The highlight of Jaipur was the impressive Jantar Mantar which was a astronomical / astrological park built several hundred years ago by the Maharajah of the time.


Worlds largest sun dial at Jantar Mantar




Elephant procession up to the Amber Palace, Jaipur


Typical street with the sacred beasts wandering and pooing randomly

Now confident train travellers, we moved onto Sawai Madhophur, the home of Ranthambore National Park, the country's famous tiger reserve. Other than the national park there was really nothing significant in the town. We went on a safari at sunrise. Everyone got very excited at seeing three moving orange dots on the other side of the lake which were apparently tigers... but as Tim said, they could well have been local kids paid to dress up in tiger suits from where we were. We did however get a closer look at many other of the parks inhabitants.


Langur in Ranthambor National Park

Feeling brave (and we now realise, misguided) we decided to take the public train to Agra. It took over 9 hours to travel ~250km while sitting on wooden benches without any food or water. For some unknown reason the train was stationary for about 2 hours in the middle of nowhere. For the entire journey we were a spectacle and provided the entire carriage with it's travel entertainment. Every move we made was apparently amusing and the source of much giggling.

The main attraction of Agra is the Taj Mahal. Despite the suggestions of many frends, there have been no proposals... too predictable Tim claims. Anyway, we haven't actually been there yet but plan to go at sunrise tomorrow.

The Taj Mahal is the biggest mausoleum in the world (and the people of Agra also claim it to be the most beautiful building on earth). It was built by the 5th Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal to fulfil one of the promises that he made to her on her deathbed: To erect a monument to match her beauty and show the world their love for one another.


Q: What do you see if you fly via- (A)gra?
A: The biggest erection a man has ever made for a woman


Taj Mahal view from our 2nd hotel in Agra... hopefully this one doesn't have bed bugs... will know by morning!!


Baby Taj, Agra


Tim's cute squirrel photo at the City Palace, Jaipur.
Obviously we hadn't yet given up on the palaces when this was taken...