India Travel Blogs | Travelogues | Travel Journals

7/14/07 Well the flight to Mumbai and then on to Delhi was fairly boring.  We tried to get a pre-paid taxi to Darshan and Murli’s and had a bit of trouble since there was a huge line of people waiting (and mostly cutting around other waiting people) to hop in cabs.  We finally walked all the way to the back of the line and three different cabbies wouldn’t take us to Shivalik Enclave so finally we just climbed in a guy’s old piece of shit Ambassador (non-AC) for a very hot taxi...

Other days Walked out to find something to eat. At lunch was so crowded with Indian. Since i was there, i met tourists not more than 4 couples! Where were they? No one come here??? ... Anyway, along the way had many many places to eat. Food shops on the street, some look so yummy! Most of Indian were eating there coz it's easy and cheap and quick and etc. Some of them wore suit and tie but they were there eating with hands as a traditional way to eat Dalbhat, main dish here. No chair, stood ...

We landed in Calcutta and had to gather our bags and pass through customs. It took forever for the bags to come out (we should have carried them on like we have been doing all along!), then we went the wrong way, then there were huge lines, then we didn’t have the proper security tag and had to go back… We were a little panicky that we would be spending the night in Calcutta!   But we finally made it through to our gate only to find the plane was late coming in! We had time to spa...

Today, I met the other 2 members of my group...we are not a big group but it is nice. :)  Both seem fairly nice. I spent most of the day wandering around Bombay with the other girl on my tour (who's name I already forgot...oops...I am so terrible with names).  It was fun.  Time went by so fast just people watching and looking at all the shops.  I had my first lassi today (a delicious fruit yogourt shake). It is so insane how many people there are.  The streets are u...

After yet another overnight train, I landed in Mumbai about 7 a.m. and headed for the Salvation Army hostel, serving up dorm beds for a mere 150 rupees, but just don't expect a hot shower and clean toilet.  In fact, don't ever expect that anywhere in India.  So far I've had cold showers or no shower, just a bucket with which to dump the cold water over my head.  I have no hope for a hot shower until I get home I fear. So I registered for my bed and the fellow signing me in stra...

It was Friday morning 2nd November and I was getting excited about going to India but at the same time a little sad as I was leaving hubby behind but it was his choice not to come.  Vaughan took me to the airport and there I met Colleen the other girl on my Geckos tour that I had been speaking to on e-mail the last few months but had not yet met until now.  I said goodbye to Vaughan and we got on the plane, I hadn't travelled Singapore Airlines for a number of years it was very comf...

India. The first three days.  . This is all written from memory, my diary and from postcards home, I wrote many letters but most got lost in the postal system. February 26th. Day of great excitment I have been waiting for , let the adventures begin.    The Bus tour begins and a friendship ends, Jaipur.   Had to be up early for 7am departure, quickly packed and swallowed our 5 tablets each (mainly for malaria protection and allergies) for the day before we wen...

Ganesh Ganesh meets me at the airport. Ganesh looks disconcertingly like my friend Alex - they could be different colored versions of the same person! And Ganesh has the same lingering, calm way about him. I'm completely weirded out and spend the the next few days trying in vain not to stare; totally reversing the notion that it's the Indians who gawp at the blondes. Mona & Dipan En-route from Delhi to Jaipur in a banged out jeep: I share the journey with Mona and Dipan, who are Calif...

  What can I say that hasn't been said?  It is a sublime place.  I enjoyed Agra fort more so for the mystery and imagination of how it once must have been used.  I spent more time at agra fort but more pictures of the Taj.... I don't know anything else about Agra tee hee

After seeing Taj Mahal, it was time for us to head back to Delhi to catch our midnight flight back to Singapore. We packed fast, we ate our late breakfast, we bought those Indian movie posters by the road and we were on our 4-hour drive back to Delhi. The day we arrived in Delhi was a day of some festival where they paraded these giant lanterns that depicts some monster and at the end of the day, they would have to burn it. People from all over Delhi was in all major spots like Qutab Minar, ...

My last day in India.  It's sad and not sad all at the same time.  I liked and disliked this country, but in all honesty, I never felt drawn into this place the way I was with many of the other countries I've visited in Asia such as China, Thailand, or Cambodia. It's time to leave, and with the heat and the monsoon on its way, there's no reason to stay even if I wanted to.    WHAT I'LL MISS: - watching the crowds of people on the street navigating through the cars, aut...

 First things, first.  We made it to New Delhi, and all our luggage too.  A friend from work (Garpartap) was right, all you need to do is go to the pre-paid taxi booth next to the money exchange and hire a taxi, all this right in the airport as you leave the immigration area.  It worked great, we did have a bit of a time finding the actual cab, as there were many of them parked haphazardly, but we were helped by an eager fellow, who, for a small tip found ou...

  One taxi driver wanted 80 Rupees for the ride from the airport to Sudder Street but we knew better and bartered another for thirty. It was a long drive into Calcutta and the taxi's horn blew in a continuous frenzy. Crowded roads and streets were filled with awe and wonder; human-powered carts piled high with burlap sacks of cargo, cattle foraging garbage from the street-side gutters, a man with six fingers, and goats being gutted and skinned while hanging from trees along major thorou...

I arrived in Mumbai for a five-day orientation last Saturday night.  The airport seemed not radically different from home… until I got outside.  Swarms of people behind a metal barrier.  Thankfully the AJWS arranged for a driver to pick me up (sweet!), and I spotted him holding a sign with my name on it right away.  Then I had to get my luggage cart through the crowd and shouting policemen on the sidewalk.  My first impressions of Mumbai on the drive to the hotel...

Finally - after all the build up, we make it to India!  I'm not exactly sure what I expected, but this wasn't it.  We spent our first two days in Delhi being driven around by an autorickshaw driver Mr Bill, who when asked to show us the sights of Delhi took us to shops that we concluded are owned by a counsin, an uncle, neighbour or some other obscure relation.  We didn't buy anything and didn't really see anything which is why Delhi is our least favourite place so ...