19/04/2012

So... Today was travel day - WE... ARE... GOING... HOME! ;-)
Last night we got a rickshaw from the hospital to the hotel at around 19:00 and we freshened up in the hotel. About an hour later we got the hotel to get us a normal taxi, we loaded our stuff and were on our way to the airport, which took less than 30 minutes.
When we arrived at the airport it took us about half an hour to get it. Security was rather hesitant (anal!) about letting strangers in so early before the flight but in the end and after many words exchanged with security personnel around the place we finally found a "Visitor's entrance" where we could get in. There we were required (for a fee of course) to print our flight itinerary on paper before we faced our last (anal!) security guy on the way into the airport - after talking to him for a full 15 minutes (with broken English of course) he finally caved in and let us in. In hindsight, I was wondering if he was looking for a bit of backhand "commission" but my perseverance won in the end ;-)
After a short stop at a Lavazzo where I had a sandwich while Claire went for a short walk, we went off killing time for about 30 minutes before check-in for our flight opened. Then we checked in, where we nearly didn't get on the flight because Claire was asking them to give us seats with more space due to her medical condition - as soon as they heard that they latched onto the fact that T&C's stipulated that policy was not to let anyone fly with any medical problems - the b*stards!!! All we wanted was a bit of extra space. Never mind, after sweet talking them and saying that Claire herself was a nurse, as well as showing them discharge papers, telling them that the doctors had put a "fit for travel" disclaimer in, and them ringing their supervisors, talking about medical boards of "independent" doctors etc etc etc we were finally checked in after 20 minutes - but without extra space or anything - in fact they were trying to pull the "we are doing you a real favour" spiehl here. I was really disgusted and I swear that it will be a loooooooooong time before I use BA (that is: British Airways!!!) again if I can help it - I would rather use RyanAir because they are cheaper and you get the same treatment (but at least you expect it as you pay less!) - Willie Walsh (Irish chap, CEO of BA) sort your troops out - terrible "service", REALLY! You should consider introducing a "human empathy" dimension to your service rather than hiding behind countless Terms&Conditions, medical boards and what-have-you - disgusting! It does not help a person's condition after having been sick for days (but recovering well!) to be told that "we might not be able to let you on the plane" when all you're asking for is a little bit of extra care -  god only knows that we pay for the service you are supposed to provide - though, never again, if I can help it!
Anyway, rant mode off..!
We got into the duty-free area but none of us were really in the mood for duty free or buying presents - and we were also told there that you cannot use your remaining cash Rupees on duty free unless you are an Indian - say WHAT?!?!?!?! Anyway, after some grumbling we just gave up, kept hold of our remaining Rs5.000,- Rupees in cash (I'll find somewhere to use them some day) and headed off to our departure gate. There we (thankfully!) found actual recliners, we planted ourselves there and just waited for the flight.
I had previously bought Alpen/cereal bars galore for Claire so that she had something nutritious to keep her stomach churning so I was constantly feeding her little bits up until departure. We were both sick with worry that she would get sick before the flight (and therefore not be let on because of the previous bullshit) but keeping her stomach occupied with nuts and strawberry/yogurt mix in the bar, as well as talking about non-flight stuff seemed to keep her stomach happy so there were no incidents and in fact she started feeling even better - doubtless also because the time was coming for our departure - going back to IRELAND - yay! ;-)
So we departed on time at 2:20 and other than some quick fruit that I got from the cabin crew we both went to sleep, exhausted. At around 6:15 London time we arrived on time after just over 8 hours of flight time.
After spending 1.5 hours travelling from T5 -> T1, security and mugshots etc we finally arrived in the departure hall for our Ireland bound flight. We went to the pub/restaurant there where Claire had scrambled eggs/smoked salmon on bread (and hoovered it all up, including crumbs!!!) and I had a croissant with ham and cheese and TWO PINTS OF GUINNES from 8:00 in the morning - hardcore! Then it was time to depart and we went to the gate and were off at 10:00. We arrived about an hour later, with no incidents and got our luggage. Claire's sister Annette and brother Shane waited for us and then took us home in Xeena (our Ford Focus) to Roscommon.
There we met her parents and broke all the news while getting fed lots of Irish food. We talked away and I even had a couple of beers while her dad had a couple of shots of Bushmills before we were taken into Annette's house to sleep (picking up some briquettes on the way).
There we just relaxed and watched telly. I got the "great" idea of ordering takeaway so we had pizza, chips and chicken wings at around 22:00. I had actually passed out in front of the telly at this stage on the couch (soooo unusual!) and they had to wake me up for food. After 10 minutes of gorging I literally ran up to bed for sleep - I was so exhausted!
It is good to be back for both of us in a much less populated area of the world where the only "noise" is bird chatter around here in Roscommon...! Mmmmmmm... ;-)

15/04/2012 - 18/04/2012

I am making a an update this time, spanning the remainder of our trip because we didn't go sightseeing at all in New Delhi. The trip I had booked for us to Agra on 15/04 was also left unused and we didn't even try to claim a refund on it. New Delhi really did become a disaster because Claire was seriously ill and I was ill too. The upside was that the hotel was really concerned, helpful and nice to us (apart from 3 days of no hot water due to a burst water pipe - yay, our luck has no limits! - but never mind!)
On Sunday 15/04 morning I finally had enough and contacted our travel insurance with the aim of finding us a suitable hospital that was covered by them. They referred us to the Apollo Hospital and I took Claire directly to the A&E at around lunch time.
After about 30 minutes there Claire had amazingly already been admitted to a bed in A&E and seen a couple of doctors for assessment - and she was immediately put on drip. Within 2 hours they also had her up on a general ward (6 beds - they had no semi-private rooms available for us and full private was just too expensive!) - all I had to do was make an Rs. 50.000,- outlay by credit card and sign the dotted line - and give them a few more details.
Claire ended up spending 3 days there right up until the time of our departure back to Ireland. Her continuous vomiting had caused concerns for potential kidney failure (no wee) and later they diagnosed her with clinical starvation due to the fact that she had vomited up food, fluids, bile, pills and what-have-you for many days at this stage. So as previously mentioned, she was put on drip and remained on drip for the three days for re-hydration and nutrients while they took her through simple foods, gave her anti-sickness shots and pills and slowly started rebuilding her ability to drink and eat again.
I, too, was sick with flu/chest infection for the full duration of this period, adding to the disaster that became Delhi, and didn't do much other than driving rickshaws and cabs between the hospital and hotel to visit and spending the rest of the day in bed. Apart from about 45 minutes one day, I didn't even use the pool facilities nor the workout facilities in the hotel. I only had breakfast as part of the buffet there, when I could eat, and used their cake/patisserie shop in the evening time when I needed to eat.
All in all Delhi was not much to write home about for us in terms of experience - although it's not really Delhi's fault - and we didn't even get to see the Taj Mahal or Agra, which really was a monumental letdown of our trip.
HOWEVER, we're both alive and should be well again soon - so that does count for something!
As regards the hospital: while the ward Claire was in was not the cleanest and also quite noisy, we simply cannot fault the hospital for the staff in terms of nurses and doctors. Claire was really well looked after and ended up seeing 3 different consultants up to twice a day over the three day period. She was constantly monitored and the staff genuinely appeared to care and watch her - maybe some of it was because she was a foreigner as she strongly suspected that a lot of the staff came to have a "gawk" - but never mind, that's really a good thing - especially when your fellow Indians in surrounding beds start giving out about Claire's level of service versus theirs ;-)
The cost of the hospital for 3 nights including doctors, medicines, food, bed etc (and included meals for me when I was around at meal time) came to an eye-wateringly measly €600,-. We were both seriously shocked!
I would strongly suspect that few hospitals in Europe would be able to give that level of care and attention - and especially in Ireland these days with fiscal deficits being incrementally taken out of health budgets year after year - at that price (or even with a multiplier of 2-5). The Indian private hospital system is simply amazing and I only wish that Europe would wake up and make (private) health services a lot more affordable to the point that you could pay for it yourself without (highly suspect and expensive!) private health cover, which is bound to bankrupt you at first hurdle due to "exclusions" at private healthcare discretion, which we hear about in the newspapers day in and day out.

14/04/2012

Claire suffered a relapse today and really wasn't feeling well (and neither am I!) so we ended up contacting the hotel and got them to get us a doctor on call. He investigated Claire and yet again we were prescribed anti-sickness medicine. However, as the day progressed in bed for both of us there was no let-up in Claire's vomiting and even the pills came back out.
At night time Claire was just spewing yellow bile and at some point during that night I had enough...

13/04/2012

This morning I felt even worse than yesterday and also registered a good fever. But at least Claire doesn't appear to feel as bad as yesterday. Apart from a very short breakfast where we both ate very little the day was pretty much spent in bed, sleeping and occasionally watching stuff on the telly or from my laptop. How annoying!

12/04/2012

Yesterday evening I did feel a bit rough but didn't think too much of it. This morning, however, I am feeling like crap - chest infection and all joints in my body hurting. To top it off Claire's stomach is doing wobbles and she's sick too. What a great tourist couple we are.
After breakfast and showers we tried out the metro here in New Delhi, which is in very good condition but also incredibly busy with people and just as bad as London during rush hour, if not worse. We went to the Rajiv Chowk circle and had a look around in the shops but it quickly got too much for us in our conditions, due to the annoying array of touts in the wood works everywhere. So after a drink and a sandwich in Cafe Coffee Day there we returned to the hotel where we spent the day and evening in front of the telly - had a few snoozes in between and ended up going to sleep as well at 21:00 as we were both well wasted.
It is interesting to note that the shops in Delhi are quite expensive around Connaught Place and that you're just as well off buying stuff back home. Of course we could go to the markets around the place and pick up cheap stuff - but neither of us are currently in a frame of mind to do so and for that reason we have instead decided that in order to avoid touts etc we will have a look in the International Airport in Delhi for a few hours before flying out.

11/04/2012

Last night I didn't get much sleep due to the extreme rocking of the train (by far the worst track we have encountered) and the extremely snoring individual across the aisle - he was more noisy than a revving auto-rickshaw!
We arrived in Delhi at 5:45, only ten minutes late, which was pretty good. So we negotiated our way outside and found a small cab-van driven by two kids that didn't look one day older than 16 - but they drove alright and heeded our request not to play their local Indian pop music too loudly at 6:00 in the morning!
We arrived at the LaLIT hotel at 6:15 and had already decided to do an early check-in (costing half a day's rate) only to find that despite our previous emails they didn't have a room with our specifications available for us just yet - they could only offer a "suitable" smoking room at the time so we decided to wait as they indicated it would be no more than half an hour before they would be ready for us. Nearly two hours later and a few back-and-forths from both camps to check/convey status they finally got us a room - but due to the wait they waved the normal fee and still offered us breakfast as an apology - not bad!
So the next time we wish to book a luxury hotel we will do a similar ploy of listing a heap of specifications and wanting to check-in early - seems that there is some money to save ;-)
After showering/freshing up we went down to a huge breakfast buffet - it was ginormous and consisted of nearly everything you could wish for (except pork sausages - chicken sausages being the substitute) - and there was plenty of it and no rush for the buffet stands to get food unlike e.g. the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai.
Then we rested for a couple of hours before I went down to the gym and ran for an hour, showered and relaxed with a newspaper in their special spa relaxation section - great stuff ;-)
For the rest of the day we didn't do much - I did receive a couple of phone calls from employment agencies in Ireland - and even arranged an interview.
At around 17:00 I also skipped out for food (Claire's stomach still not entirely great and she didn't feel hungry), which was a trip to PizzaHut only 750m away - I also brought home a small pizza for Claire for later - and in the reception area of the hotel they had a bakery and I bought a gigantic chocolate donut for both of us to share.
The rest of the evening we watched telly and relaxed.
It was interesting that it had just rained quite heavily when we arrived in New Delhi - and when we checked the news it also turned out that they had had lots of winds at up to 100km/hour, which knocked down trees etc. Also, during the day we only felt temperatures at late 20C's, which felt quite cool for India!
I am starting to wonder whether updating LinkedIn status and replying to head hunters has been such a brilliant idea over the past week. I have so far gotten two phone calls from agencies - and one interview is already bagged for Friday - but while I'm still in India. It's really great to feel wanted out on the current job market, in particular in Ireland, but maybe the timing was a bit off as this undoubtedly will cost me some time and anxiety while still being away. Ah well, it's done now, no point in whingeing ;-)

10/04/2012

It time to move on again - the time it's the final leg of our journey, to Delhi. So we were in no hurry getting up this morning as checkout is at 12:00, we have an air-con in the room, it's stiffling hot outside and our train doesn't depart until 19:00. So we spent the time relaxing, showering and then going to breakfast at 10:00, which was literally last orders.
Afterwards we returned to the room again where we relaxed before heading off to reception, checking out, leaving our main luggage with them and heading off to the pool area. There we spent a few hours swimming, on the sun loungers and talking to some of the other tourists there - I also read a fair bit. It was really nice and relaxing and a pre-cursor to similar "activities" in Delhi ;-)
At 17:00 we went up to the veranda and had a snack - our last meal before heading off to Delhi. Then we said our goodbyes and walked out on the road and got a rickshaw to take us to the railway station.
The train was already on the platform an hour before departure but it was locked - in the meantime we were suffering countless lock-and-chain wallahs running in circles around us, wanting to sell said locks and chains and repair our bags etc. Half an hour before departure they finally opened up the door but the air-con wasn't on inside and it was probably near 50C inside the carriage.
I did manage to figure out how to switch on the fans so that did help us a bit. Our seating was actually not located together in the train - mine was on the side and Claire's was on the end-cubicle (2 berths) across from mine. But thankfully the guy in the end-cubicle agreed to swap with us.
The train left on time and we were on our way - we were just relaxing, reading and looking out the window before finally going to bed. As usual, there was a (this time REALLY!) loud snorer just across from us and he started snoring around 20:30 an hour before we went to sleep - great...!

09/04/2012

Today was sightseeing and action day. We had booked a car from the hotel to take us around to all of the sights of Jodhpur. We started out from the hotel at 8:30 and first went to Mehrangarh Fort, which really was a feast to the eyes - it was really well kept and the museum there held an impressive array of platforms for elephant rides, weapons, clothes and cannons. We spent more than an hour there with our audio guides like good little tourists.
Afterwards we went to Jaswant Thada just a few hundred meters down the road, which is a memorial to Maharaja Jaswant Singh II and made of marble - it was really peaceful, apart from the lawn movers running at the time, and well impressive. The inside was very stylish too and contained a range of paintings.
Then we headed off to the Umaid Bhawan Palace at the other end of the city, a.k.a. Chittar Palace, which also functions as a private residence for Gaj Singh II - and as a luxury hotel. Much of the palace was therefore inaccessible but the wing that was accessible was really well kept and hosted a museum with some history of the family and its locality. There was also an impressive show of vintage cars, including open top Rolls Royce's, Cadillacs etc. Unfortunately the covering windows were well overdue a cleaning and so I couldn't take some good pictures without literally placing the lens against the windows, resulting in a very limited view range - but I got a couple of good pictures, if only partially of some of the cars.
Then our driver took us down to the Clock Tower and Markets - where we spent a total of 20 minutes - it was around lunch time and insanely hot and neither of us were in a mood (or had any space) for any kind of shopping so we quickly called our driver again after a quick trot around - at this point we had seen the main sights and asked him to return us to the hotel.
I then called the Flying Fox team and booked a zip lines trip with them for 16:30 that evening. So we called up our driver and made arrangements to bring us up to the Fort where the action was happening for 15:30.
We then relaxed in the room and also had a small lunch to keep us going. At 15:30 we were ready and went up to the Fort again where we found them and sat down.
There we got to talk to of the people there that we were going to do it with - there were a couple of singles, a couple with a kid from London and a couple from Canada (Derek and Christine). After talking to people for about 45 minutes and signing up (turns out we got a really good deal, buy one and get one free, totaling Rs.1,350.00) we had a quick lecture on safety and how to zip.
Then we were off to our first zip line. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't nervous (and I'm sure Claire was too although she was displaying a certain amount of cool ;-) but I managed to control the urge to run away and off I went. The experience was amazing - zipping at a speed of probably 30km/hour at heights of perhaps 50m at times was just exhilerating and we both really enjoyed it. We had a total of 6 zips (the longest being 320m) lasting just over an hour and everyone enjoyed themselves. There were no incidents and although a few people got "stuck" near the end of the line, they all heroically managed to pull themselves backwards hand-over-hand to the platform - even the kid, who was 11 years of age, displayed an incredible cool when he got stuck and started pulling himself in - although he had tried it before - through school...?!?!
We had gotten talking to the Canadian couple and we got on with them very well. She was a nurse and he worked in IT (banks in Canada) - so not unlike myself and Claire. So we ended up agreeing to have dinner together in our hotel Ratan Vilas. The two girls also had a patch-up session of Derek's toe nails, some of which were bleeding and in the process of falling off from previous hiking expeditions, both at the camp and later at our hotel room - as I always carry a first-aid kit.
At 19:00 we sat outside the hotel, while waiting for the dinner section to be ready at 19:30, and had mostly non-alcoholic drinks (well, I had a few beers during the night ;-) but the mosquitoes quickly moved in as it was getting dark and "bullied" us away from the lawn and up onto the veranda.
Afterwards we went for dinner together and ended up spending 3.5 hours talking in front of a fantastic array of curries, rice and naan bread - they are a really nice couple and we got on really well. The topics of conversation included travelling, IT, nursing, the global economy etc.
At 23:00 we went on the hunt for a rickshaw but didn't find any at the road so I went back into the hotel and asked them to book one. It had literally only been 2 minutes after the guy at the counter had called the rickshaw and until it appeared - by far the fastest service in India - EVER! ;-) We said our goodbyes and wished each others good luck with the onwards journey before parting ways.
After that it was bed time - time to give the remaining guests a break from loud conversation at the out-door dining area ;-)

08/04/2012

We got up at 7:00 morning, showered and then packed. For breakfast we had the remaining toast bread and jam. At 9:00 we went down to reception and checked out and booked a cab.
Half an hour later the cab arrived and took us down to Abu Road station. When we were nearly there we found an old man squatting in the middle of the road, slowing down and delaying traffic to some point. As we passed a big fat Indian prick in his four-by-four went on to smack the squatting man in the face from his car - while the guy that was squatting on the road was probably rather ignorant and shouldn't be there in the first place he didn't deserve that kind of treatment and we were well pissed off - but not understanding what was going on we didn't intervene and just waited for the driver to drop us off at the station.
We waited for two hours on the station before the time arrived - on time. I also had more Samosas there and didn't get sick - amazing! We boarded and ended up sitting in AC2 with the conductor who was mostly out of the berth and otherwise remained quiet - handy, no noisy Indians around for a change!
Initially I toyed with the computer while Claire was reading magazines that she had acquired at the station. But then we turned to some computer gaming - Worms Crazy Golf - for a couple of hours before arriving on time in Jodhpur at 17:00.
The hotel had sent a guy to pick us up and we were soon on our way to the Rata Vilas hotel, down the road. The hotel turned out to be very stylish and well nice - like a mini-palace. We were well impressed. The place also used to be the home of a Maharaja and one of his descendants turned out to be still living there and managing it - we even met him there. And nice man! The room was also really nice and huge!
I went out to the pool to swim and did a few lengths before retiring to the loungers, while Claire was in the room watching Man U on telly. There I also met an English couple and we spoke for about an hour before they went into the pool and I retired into the room.
After about an hour in the room we went for dinner in the hotel restaurant - the food was really nice and we had beer too - we spent a couple of hours there talking and eating - very nice and romantic setting under a giant gazebo outside - with a water fountain in the middle. Stylish indeed!
Afterwards we sat under a smaller gazebo in the garden next to the pool for 15 minutes before retiring to the room to relax.

07/04/2012

Claire was still sick today so we ended up spending most of the day in the hotel room. We slept in until around 9:00 after which I went out on the balcony to read and catch some sun. I spent a few hours there while Claire was sleeping.
When the sun finally disappeared over the roof I went back inside and we just watched television while I toyed with the laptop for most of the day.
I had bought sandwich bread and jam and we had Marie-gold biscuits from previously so we both lived off that today - Claire because her stomach was still wobbly after her food poisoning.
Only time out was when I fetched Claire some chocolate and more water.
For dinner I went down to the restaurant and had another nice chicken curry and a beer - and brought back up garlic Naan bread for Claire.
After some more telly we finally went to sleep relatively early at around 22:00.

06/04/2012

We had a rather horrible night - and especially Claire as she was sick as a small hospital. She had been sick since 1:00 this morning and I woke up at 4:00 and stayed up with her and helped as best as I could as she continued to be sick, retching up bile - no food came up at all.
At 6:00 I texted "Charles" and told him that she was sick and we wouldn't be able to make the trip - I offered to pay anyway and we agreed to meet back at the Lake Palace Hotel later in the day.
At 9:00 she was still worse for wear with no ended to the retching so I brought her to the local doctor, which we had previously (luckily) spotted for no apparent reason the other day. The doctor reckoned that she had suffered some kind of food poisoning - but we both think it was a long time coming given her constipation and other issues over the last week or so - perhaps last night's Punjab Restaurant food finally tipped her over the edge, despite the fact that I had tasted everything of last night's meal and didn't feel any major issues.
The doctor(s), an old woman and her husband, ended up giving Claire an anti-sickness (and ) shot and prescribed various anti-sickness tablets and a Dioralyte-like substance. In the meantime I went to the Lake Palace Hotel and sorted out things with "Charles" who wasn't there - but they called him and I spoke to him over the phone and ended up leaving Rs.500,- with them for cancellation.
The rest of the day we both spent mostly sleeping - even I didn't go eating other than a few Marie-Gold biscuits that we had previously bought. I did pop out for a while to buy some during the afternoon. I also woke Claire up a couple of times to get her to drink fluids - and I finally took her for a second doctor appointment at 18:00 - just for a follow up and some more pills.
Then we returned to the hotel. I decided to go down and eat in the restaurant at 19:00 as Claire wasn't keen on food smells at all. It turns out that the hotel restaurant, which we thought was vegetarian given the menus in the room, in fact had a small non-vegetarian menu, which was great! They also offered to source beer so I had a Kingfisher with my meal. The meal, which consisted of yet another Chilli chicken, rice and a garlic naan, was really nice - one of the best meals I have had here in India - I am now kicking myself for not figuring this out before we went down to the Punjab Restaurant, which may have been the cause of Claire's sickness - D'Oh!
Afterwards I returned to the room and did some computer stuff while Claire was still sound asleep. At around 0:00 I finally went to sleep, after having woken Claire up a last time to drink some fluids.

05/04/2012

This morning we had a bit of a lie in as Claire was still not feeling terribly well. But after 9:00 we finally got up, showered and headed down to one of the local food wallahs and had some breakfast.
Afterwards we had a walk around the lake and also went to Hotel Lake Palace where we had read that Mahandra Dan ("Charles"), a local tourist guide, takes people off on walks around Mount Abu. We met him there and after talking to him for a bit we booked a half-day trip in the area for the morning from 6:30.
Then we returned to the lake where we hired a leg-propelled boat resembling a swan - yup, corny, but hey we're tourists, we're allowed ;-) We had a spin around the lake for about 30 minutes - it was nice and quiet in the far end and we hovered there for about 10 minutes before returning. It was a good workout too as we were well sweaty afterwards.
After a bit of lunch and trotting around we headed back to the hotel room where we relaxed for a couple of hours. Getting hungry, we headed down to the Punjab Restaurant, which was the only non-vegetarian restaurant we could find in the area that was actually open at 18:30 - as I was craving meat after days of vegetarian food. There we had some Manchow soup, a chilli chicken, rice and pakoras, which wasn't awe inspiring but tasted OK.
Finally we returned to the hotel again and Claire watched some telly while I was doing some computer stuff up until bed time at around 23:00.

04/04/2012

... And the noise just kept going... There was a short break between 4:30 and 5:30 where it was relatively quiet and we both actually managed to fall asleep for a bit before the party started again in a room very near us. We were well pissed off but knew there would be no point in complaining to them as they were pissed out of their minds - and from previous experiences we knew that the hotel staff wouldn't bother addressing it given the volume of people.
So at 9:30, after having showered, I marched down to reception on my own and gave them hell. The reception guy was initially rude but that just sparked me off even more and I ended up giving them the ultimatum of refund/checkout versus new room and a promise of no more partying. In the end they caved in and we got another room on the 3rd floor - not much better really, but Claire and I decided to give the place one more chance.
We even went as far as to check out TripAdvisor for other places but many of them had "very noisy" given the amount of pre-wedding and wedding parties that they throw in Mount Abu, apparently - we knew that was the case before coming but not the extent of what's going on, which became very apparent last night.
So we decided that if we can't hack here for another night then we'll book a car and get off the mountain, down to Jodhpur a couple of days early. Hopefully we won't need to use that option, but staying in Mount Abu for the sake of staying with sleepless nights would just ruin the trip.
Anyways, after moving room and getting in place again, we went down to a local outdoor food place and had some breakfast - Claire's stomach was sick so she settled for toast/butter/jam and I had what looked like a Chapatti with potato filling and sprinkled with cheese - very yummy!
Afterwards we went for a walk around Mount Abu and found the lake too. But we were a bit tired and therefore only spent a couple of hours out before returning to the hotel for a bit and relaxing.
At 16:00 we went back out and had some early supper, consisting of vegetarian pizza, burger and chips - this place appears to offer mostly vegetarian meals and we haven't yet spotted a meat-wallah - gaaaaaaah!
After buying some snacks we returned to the room and devoured them while watching the last 4 episodes of Dexter Season 6 - bye bye for a while, Dexter...! Afterwards we relaxed for a bit before going to sleep.#

03/04/2012

This morning we were lying in and took it easy as we were going to travel via Abu Road to Mount Abu. After showers and breakfast in the hotel we finished packing and spent the remaining time relaxing until 11:00 checkout. Afterwards we spent the time before our 14:25 train departure from Jaipur in the reception area, which had seating.
Another couple from England were also waiting there and we got talking to them - turns out that she had Delhi belly and we advised them on what to do, i.e. drink water/dioralyte and when it stays down proceed to dry toast - then if that stays down, consider more adventurous foods.
At 13:30 our rickshaw, which we had booked with the hotel, arrived and we were on our way to the station. Again, Claire went and spoke to the station master and we quickly found our platform where we waited for about 30 minutes before the train arrived - and that's when the fun started.
Our booking had given us carriage G10 (AC3), seats 76-78 (side upper+lower), but there were only 75 seats in this carriage, unlike the two adjacent carriages, which both had 78. So we got on G9 and waited for the conductor to finally arrive to sort us out. He was not really very nice and after some to'ing and fro'ing he ended up planting us in the midst of 5 sweaty Indian men - so much for our own corner with no disturbances - sigh. We were a bit pissed off and when another conductor came around Claire tried to rectify the situation to no avail. We really should put in a complaint for their stupidity and incompetence (and maybe get a partial refund ;-) - but life really is too short...
Anyway, we settled and got talking to a couple of the guys there - we actually had a good conversation about India, life, the world economy, Europe and so on with one guy in particular, who was very nice. I also sampled a couple of Samosas from the local Wallah - and didn't get sick with Delhi-belly from it, despite this high-risk food acquisition approach. Claire still had a sick stomach so didn't eat much and certainly not anything off the Wallahs, just in case.
After 6:30 hours on the train we finally arrived at our destination and were immediately greeted by a horde of men wanting to bring us to Mount Abu - although overwhelming it actually worked in our favour as we didn't need to do any haggling - they did that amongst themselves in front of us until they came to an acceptable figure, which we accepted - and we were on our way on the 28km journey by Jeep.
After about an hour's drive, and after paying a weird Rs.10,- tourist tax per passenger at a Mount Abu "entrance", we arrived at our hotel at 21:45 and immediately had big misgivings.
While the hotel looked OK and was reasonably new there was a huge party going on and lots of local pop music playing with big base at a very high volume. So we immediately expressed our concerns and asked for a quiet room away from the party - the reception staff asked us not to worry as "It will all be over in half an hour". We got to our room and realised immediately that this would probably be the most noisy room in the hotel given the fact that it was under the ball room and had 3 walls facing hallways and the small garden outside (via a big glass facade) - but we decided to give it a chance.
Nearly an hour later the music finally died down and we thought this was the end - but no, then loads of young people started spilling out into the hallways and started banging doors to their rooms (the party moved from the ball room to the guest rooms), yelling and screaming, laughing, messing and even busying themselves inside the rooms in more animal ways. So I didn't fall a sleep for a long time - and neither did Claire.

02/04/2012

Today we got up at 7:00 as we had a busy schedule ahead of us - we thought. We generally slept well overn-night, at least until around 3:00 when suddenly I woke up to an unholy noise emanating initially from what I thought was the air-conditioning unit, which was already a fair bit noisy. It turned out that while the air-condition was the cause (vibration) it wasn't the new noisy bit - it was actually a broken window on top, which could move/vibrate within its frame. After thinking about a solution for about 15 seconds I finally came up with a solution - lean two 1l bottles of mineral water against the window and the vibration will be absorbed - job done  - and I could go back to sleep ;-)
Anyway, we showered and got up to have breakfast for 7:30 - we had pre-booked it last night because of the time. At 8:00 we went outside and our auto-rickshaw driver was there waiting. We said goodmorning and I went on to tell him that we didn't want to do any shopping (he asked us yesterday whether we wanted to go and see suits for me and clothes for here). After that he was in a bit of a foul mood but never mind - we ignored it and were on our way to our first stop at the Amber Fort.
It is indeed as impressive as the guide books suggest. The sheer size of it and the surrounding walls on the hills (not unlike the Chinese wall), which span between the three major Forts, must have been a daunting sight for any wood-be attackers of Jaipur in its time. Definitely worth a visit. We, like most other tourists, did the corny thing and took the elephant ride up to the Fort from the bottom, which was next to a small lake on which "floats" a big square flower garden and plantation.
Up there we first explored the vast space and courtyards and then went on to navigating the nooks and crannies around the place - it was nice and good fun. It also helped that we were there before it got really hot.
Next on the list was Jaigarh Fort, which was generally pink - just like the Old City of Jaipur. It paled in comparison to the Amber Fort but it was OK to walk around and have a look while the temperature was being cranked up to probably 40C. We also met a guy by the name of James from Bristol who was an engineer and was temporarily stationed in India as the engineering company he was working for was attempting to set up in India - so he had taken the opportunity to take some holidays and go off and explore India - nice chap indeed, and we swapped a few stories and things to do along the way.
Finally, it was Nahargarh Fort, which was also impressive but didn't have much to see by means of objects - all the rooms and courtyards etc were empty. Worth a visit nonetheless, even if it was insufferably hot around there at this point around 12:00.
Then we asked our driver to take us down to the Old City as I had spotted a barbershop near the entrance and really needed a haircut. Again, the driver was being sulky and pissy - but didn't really offer a good reason given that we were customers and had the right to make decisions about what we wanted to see and where to go - so we decided to dump him altogether - missing the Monkey Temple & sunset point with him - but we weren't really bothered at this point given temperature and amount of sights we had seen. When we reached the Old City we told him of our decision and gave him Rs. 600,- (700 was agreed, which included the temple/sunset) so he got a good deal, especially when compared to other tourist outlets and fixed trips etc. He was still pissy but we walked off and let him stew on his own - no time for that kind of crap.
So I went off to get my hair cut but there was a bit of a misunderstanding about using the trimmer (with a plastic number 9 distance yoke) and he started on my hair without one, which effectively removed nearly all my hair near my right ear before I managed to stop him. So then I told him to just trim it with scissors - but for sake of symmetry he ended up having to do the same thing on the left side - and of course, Claire was nearly pissing herself laughing with the other Indian gang while all this was going on. In the end he did an alright job (for about 80 euro cent!) and the "missing" (or rather, very short) hair didn't really look too bad after all - and with my hair growth it will have grown out before the end of the week anyway - until then I will just have to resign myself to even more curious stares - now also at my hair...
Then we went back to the same food-Wallah where we ate yesterday and had a nice Chowmeing (Claire) and Special Coconut Upanam - both were nice - with Ginger Ale and finally two cups of coffee. Just what the doctor ordered!
Afterwards we walked in the old city and through sheer spontinuity I popped into a watch shop and had a look at the selection there - and ended up buying a new watch (FastTrack). My old cheapo plastic Casio's strap was breaking and it was only a matter of time before it would get lost. So I preempted it with a bit of retail therapy - Claire picked the new watch between those that I liked so let's just hope she picked right ;-)
At this stage we had had enough and were well hot and bothered so we flagged a rickshaw and returned back to the hotel at around 16:30 where we relaxed and showered - again...
At around 18:30 we went up to the rooftop restaurant of our hotel and had vegetarian meals - both Biryanis. Claire's stomach is still sick, most likely from the antibiotics, and so I was the only one having a few beers while we were reminescing on the trip so far and the future ahead - until around 21:30 when we returned back to our room and went to bed.

Some points about Jaipur that we have found while being here:
- The people here are generally friendly - about the same level as that of Amritsar
- However, the auto-rickshaws, Wallahs, shopkeepers etc are very aggressive in their way of hanging on to you as soon as they spot you - they will sell you snake oil even if it is to get them off your back. You just have to be firm and have a firm look in your face - sometimes you may however have to resolve to outright rudeness to get them to back off - it's a balancing act - start nice and then go nuclear if the need arises
- It is unbelievably hot here - forecast will perhaps say 38-39C but it must be around 40+ at times as a light "breeze" actually feels hotter than still air.

The Amber Fort in all its glory

Inside the Amber Fort

The entrance to the Amber Fort from above

Some of the impressive architecture within the Amber Fort

The flower and plantation island as seen from the Amber Fort

A wee garden within the Amber Fort

Even the monkeys are completely conked out in this heat!

The default means of tourist transportation from the lake and up to the Amber Fort

A small park by the lake at Amber Fort

There are a lot of camels around the place in Rajasthan - but sure it's practically a desert alright!

The pink-ness of Jaigarh Fort

The largest cannon in the world rests at Jaigarh Fort - the stuff in the end could be Indian hippie equivalent of "make love and not war" - but who knows... ;-)

The Amber Fort and surroundings as seen from Jaigarh Fort

Nahargarh Fort - the west wing, I think...

Inside Nahargarh Fort there are some impressive paintings on the wall

A view over Jaipur from Nahargarh Fort - yup, it's big - as in geographically! And rests with large hills most of the way around.

Inside the Nahargarh Fort

Another section inside the Nahargarh Fort

Claire being friendly with the local donkey

We passed this (privately owned) palace on the lake at Jaipur as we were coming back - very impressive! Used to be State owned but some very loaded person bought it off them!

01/04/2012

We ordered breakfast for 8:15 this morning last night while sitting in the garden. So we got up an hour before that at 7:15 this morning, showered and then went for breakfast. The breakfast wasn't particularly great but it would keep us going for the day.
At 8:45 our rickshaw driver from last night picked us up on time and we where on our way. First off was the Hawa Mahal, the Palace of Winds, which was very impressive - and we did the audio-guide thing there, which wasn't bad. The Maharajas sure knew how to have fun with all their subjects (women) there in the old days ;-)
Next off was the City Palace, which was pricey to see when also including the audio-tour again, but worth it given that there were so many sections to see, including an artists area, armory etc.
Then we walked across to the Jantar Manter, the observatory, where we had a look at all the sundials to determine time of day, date etc. It was a very impressive and nicely kept sight - one that we'd definitely recommend.
As we had agreed to be picked up after 3 hours with the driver we still had more than an hour left on the clock by then just before 12:00 so we decided to find a restaurant and have something to eat in order to keep us going until night. So while walking along the streets of the Old City next to the palace, we found a nice little place Gokul Snacks where I had a Samosa Chhola and a Chowmeing - and Claire had a Dosa with Sambhar. Including drinks it came to Rs.209,-, which was very little - but the Samosa was the best one we have EVER tasted - it was brilliant and I must look up the recipe for when I get back home to Ireland.
Afterwards we still had 15 minutes to spare and we spotted the Iswari Minar Swarga Kendra tower so after spending about 10 minutes trying to find the entrance while I texted our driver to tell him we were going to be late, we finally found the back alley from where you could enter the tower. There we found a nice old man who took us on a guided tour while walking all the way up to the top of the 42 meter tower - there were plenty of little holes that you could look out on the way up and he stopped us at those that had a nice view of a temple, a fort etc - most on the surrounding hill ranges of Jaipur. When we finally got to the top he sat down with us and pointed at buildings and monuments across the city while explaining it all - in the end he took a bunch of pictures of us from different angles and heights and we ended up tipping him an Rs.50,- for he good work.
Then it was time for us to leave and return back to our driver who was indeed waiting for us and looking a bit apprehensive until he spotted us - but never mind, best keep them on their toes ;-)
We then drove off to the Royal Albert Hall and surrounding park where we also visited the inside museum, which held an impressive collection of weapons, old ceramics, figures, loads of pictures painted on the walls etc. We spent a good hour there before returning to the rickshaw.
Our final stop was the Royal Gaitor, which consists on a bunch of tombs laid for a few Maharajas over times. There were hardly any people there, which surprised us a lot given the impressive marble domes and buildings there - and it was QUIET and tranquil indeed - definitely well worth a 1 hour trot and some relaxation while gazing across the monuments and hill next to them.
Then he returned us back to the hotel at 15:30 and we agreed to have him bring us to see the three Forts of Jaipur and to bring us to sunset point in the evening. So early rise again in the morning with a looong day ahead. But hey, noone ever said that tourism was easy ;-)
We relaxed for a bit before going for a trot, after considerable negotiation on the food front - and I obviously had Claire have her were, down to PizzaHut, about a 20 minute walk away from here. However, on the way we spotted a dress maker and I suddenly remembered that my H2O sandy-coloured long shorts were falling apart with big holes forming and I had been considering getting them repaired (yeah, I'm a tight arse ;-) So we went in to inquire on price for repairs and asked them how long it would take - in the end one of the young shop keepers agreed to take me back 2 min down the road with his motor bike. So off we went - I did think he drove a bit funny and it was confirmed when he said: "My friend, sorry for my driving but it is my day off and I have had a few beers!" - you WHAT?!?!!? was my response. So he was drink-driving another person (tourist) and told me while driving - so much for common sense. Anyway, I kind of didn't make a big fuss about it - I was just too surprised and at the same time tired and let him get away with it.
I got back and handed him a bit of money for the petrol for his bike and then delivered the shorts to the guy. Then we trotted off again down to PizzaHut and had a couple of thin-crust pizzas and iced-tea/lemon drinks and sat there for about an hour. We walked back and on the way back we picked up the shorts - they were already done - and not only that, but he had spotted a hole at the bottom of them and repaired that too. While knowing that he was probably charging us double the local rate we happily handed him Rs.120,- (€2) and were on our way back to the hotel again.
There we just relaxed for about 1 1/2 hours before going to sleep.

The Hawa Mahal in all its glory

Very colourful play of light from the windows and onto the floor inside the Hawa Mahal

The City - the Mubarak Mahal (Welcome Palace)

The Diwan-i-Khas, Gallery with two big Silver Jars

Guinness book of records material -  two silver jars, each allegedly constructed from 14.000 silver coins

This is one of the four big doorways inside the palace

Jantar Mantar - The Observatory's main sundial

Various sundials

This is used in relation to the picture below to calculate the offset time

This sundial showed 11:25 but we add 31 minutes (see picture above) to this and get 11:56 - exactly what my Internet-NTP synchronised smartphone said ;-)

Claire tucking in her Dosa in Gokul Snacks

No idea what it says outside, but this is Gokul snacks, offering the best Samosa on the planet - no messing! ;-)

The Iswari Minar tower

Two eejits on top of the Iswari Minar tower ;-)

Royal Albert Hall inside

No tourism would be complete without the Danish touch - vases created by Peter Ipsen and shown in Jaipur, India ;-)

Royal Albert Hall from the outside and the usual entourage of pigeons everywhere

The Royal Gator - one of the tombs

Some of the stonework inside is absolutely astonishing!

Your quirky hotel room with dome and pillars - never mind the mess, we brought that ;-)

Our quirky Krishna Palace Hotel from the outside

31/03/2012

Suffice to say that neither of us got much sleep overnight on the train - the noise, light and frequent disturbances from people pulling the curtain of your berth was driving us bonkers - even Chillout music could only go so far to drown out the madness. In the end I gave up at around 8:00 and unfolded the bed so that I could sit down instead. Claire followed half an hour later - and after I checked the GPS location on the phone we realised that we were well behind schedule by about 2.5 hours.
Never mind, we were not in any hurry as today was written off anyway. We had bought muesli-bread (yum!), jam, Guava juice (really nice stuff!!!) and cheese the other day so we sat down and had a nice breakfast. But because the train was so far behind we didn't have a chance to get out of the train at the stations to pick up coffee so we had to survive without it, which was hard given the lack of sleep ;-)
In the end we arrived at 13:15 about 2 hours behind schedule, which wasn't really too bad. We then tried to ring the hotel to ask them to pick us up but we couldn't get through. In the meantime we had plenty of rickshaw drivers and other pesky individuals hovering around us and we actually had to become quite rude to get them to p*** off. In the end a local tourism approved guy helped us out by calling the hotel, as he was a friend with one of them there, and had them arrange for a driver to come and pick us up - and then proceeded to point us to where to go to wait for the driver. He was very nice and we naturally had our paranoia-armour activated while dealing with him and trying to get rid of the others. In the end I gave him Rs.40,- for helping out and said thanks  - and that "you never know who you can rely on here!" He was nice enough and even came out to check on us while we were waiting for the cab and fending off annoying individuals trying to sell us transport services not just to the hotel but also to bazaars, emporiums (my friend/wife/son/business partner etc. owns this exclusive place where they sell hand bags/shawls/figurines/jewellery etc ad nauseam - bla. bla. bla.), local tourism attraction etc...
In the end an old driver arrived and quoted us the secret code 121 that the hotel guy had given the tourist guy and us over the phone, we loaded up the car and were on our way. However, he was a pretty bad driver - unable to start the car while it was in gear and revving up the engine to move slowly through traffic - we got the distinct feeling the guy didn't even possess a driver's license. Sigh...
Never mind, we arrived in one piece at the hotel and checked in - the hotel is really quaint but quite nice and the rooms really spacious and quirky with domes and pillars in the room. We spent a few hours having showers and relaxing (Claire fast asleep, as usual) before we got up for a walk and went for something to eat.
We ended up in the Peacock Rooftoop Restaurant in the Pearl Hotel where we had a very nice meal - Vegetable Jalfrezi, a chicken curry cooked in Yogurt and Vegetable Pakora and rice to share. As Claire is currently taking the same anti-biotics that I was on because of an upset stomach I was the only one having beer and I ended up polishing off two Kingfisher 650ml bottles while there too.
When we got outside we haggled with three auto-rickshaw drivers but the first two (young) lads were too cocky in terms of haggling and walking off, as did we, so the old and more experienced guy picked us up, knowing full well that there was potential for repeat business. So we agreed to have him take us around to the main sites in the city tomorrow for 8 hours at Rs.400,-, which wasn't too bad.
Afterwards we sat down in the garden of our hotel where I had a third Kingfisher before I stumbled up to bed with Claire, watched an episode of the Big Bang Theory before going to sleep.