Manflu

Cyber World, Bundi

There were many ailments with which I expected to be afflicted whilst in India, but something approximating a heavy cold wasn't really among them. However, I've spent the majority of the last four days in bed with what I could only describe as Manflu.

I don't really have many stories to tell, therefore. After one more quiet day in Udaipur we caught two trains (of which the second was a sleeper class; I think they're ok in the day time) to Bundi and went immediately to sleep. Spent most of the next day in bed, and only ventured as far as a lakeside cafe yesterday. Bundi is a strange place. Lonely Planet raves about it (hence our being here) but I'm struggling to see what the fuss is about. It has an artificial lake and a poorly-preserved palace (which we saw this morning) but the tourism scene hasn't really been sorted yet. However, I think part of the attraction is the surrounding countryside, which we haven't really seen yet due to my bedriddenness, so I may have a more favourable impression next time round.

One amusing feature of Bundi is that it is beset with monkeys, and every time you sit down at a restaurant/cafe they provide you with a big stick with which to scare/beat off errant primates if necessary. I have decided I like the feeling of wielding a big stick.

Over.

Shaven, not stirred

Travel Point Internet, Udaipur

The night after we last spoke a momentous thing happened. We had some meat. Arrived at a suitably upmarket barbeque/curry place and decided to go for it. Definitely a success.

Quiet day after that, then early morning bus (deluxe) from Jodhpur to Udaipur (7.5 hrs) where we have a room overlooking the lake around which the city commercially and geographically revolves, although even if we didn't there are ample rooftop "lake view" restaurants and cafes. Lonely Planet describes Udaipur as "a tourist destination unto itself", a fact borne out by the existence of a variety of hotels, restaurants and experiences clearly aimed at a wealthier kind of visitor.

At such an establishment we had meat once more the night before last. This was good, but to be honest hasn't entirely sated my craving, since within the context of curry the full animal hit isn't quite so profound. What I really fancy now is a steak, or some sausages, or a bacon sandwich.

Boat ride round the lake last night on a tiny, rickety boat. I seemed to weigh more than the other seven passengers put together, and wherever I sat myself the boat tipped unnervingly in that direction. I settled on a spot and lightly perched, rendering the journey scenic but uncomfortable. Better this than scenic and wet, upon reflection.

Apparently bits of the Bond film Octopussy were filmed in Udaipur, and there are hundreds of cafes in the city that show the film every night at 7pm. We haven't indulged yet, but I have taken to calling Alex "Pooshy" and saying "I mussht be dreaming" all the time. (I know this is from Goldfinger but I got it into my head before I remembered this).

Had my holiday beard removed by a roadside barber this morning - a brutal experience. Alex seemed to find it amusing though.

Over.

Semi-Deluxe

Veggi Guest House, Jodhpur

And so to the land of trouser. Actually this is misleading since women are more visible here than anywhere else so far. We arrived in Jodhpur yesterday on a "semi-deluxe" bus from Pushkar, although I would struggle to imagine a less luxurious experience, six hours of knees rammed into the metal backpiece of the chair in front, people hemmed into the aisle like sardines and everyone on board staring intently at the white people with their sunglasses and ipods (a waste of time, since you couldn't hear anything above the rattling of the various bits of bus anatomy).

We eventually arrived, and found the Blue City (as an aside, I would say that Jodhpur is bluer than Jaipur, the Pink City, was pink) a place slightly less dependent on tourism that elsewhere. There seems a greater sense here of a town going about its business on a Wednesday afternoon, although that may just be the area we're in, slightly outside the epicentre. This morning we looked round the Meherangarh Fort, which I would recommend as the possessor of the finest audio guide I have encountered (narrated by what sounds like a subcontinental Olivier impersonator), and also as an interesting old fort.

Before coming here we spent two more nights in Pushkar which were spent mainly in holiday mode. Found a nice cafe showing the cricket and was having a good natter to the owner about Sehwag's technique off his hip, but he worked his way out of my good books by turning the subject to the quality of the charas he was smoking and we left promptly. Later, after several hundred attempts and once every available source of intelligence in the family had been called upon, the hotel did finally get the tv in our room working, but were not subscribed to the channel showing the test match. I didn't quite have the heart to tell them it had all been a waste of time.

Went to a rooftop restaurant last night that didn't have any tables and chairs, just cushions on the floor. I wonder if it should take away the cushions and reposition itself as a semi-deluxe restaurant.

Over

Bingo

K. K. Internet, Pushkar

We spent a further two nights in Jaipur, of which the first was spent having dinner on a 14th floor 'revolving restaurant' overlooking the city. The view was better than the food. The next day we did a day trip to nearby Amber where a ruinous old palace atop a mountain was a relaxing place to wile away an afternoon, before a return to Jaipur for tea next to a group of elderly Indian women playing bingo. There were more than two fat ladies.

Train to Ajmer the next morning (Chair Class is definitely the way to go) for a quick stopover spent mainly in the park overlooking the lake, an experience marred somewhat by the fascination our whiteness seemed to hold for the hundreds of locals who hsd the same idea. A queue of children formed waiting to shake our hands, and after obliging we took our leave silghtly overwhelmed.

Bus to Pushkar the next morning, from whence I write. We have our most luxurious, yet cheapest hotel yet, on a hillside overlooking the town (and a hole in the ground where the lake used to be before they drained it because "it was getting very dirty") with a private balcony and more-than-passable bathroom facilities. Of the places we've been, Pushkar is the most like the India of my imagination, although probably for this reason it is also full of quaint but embarrassing middle-aged hippies. Yesterday we trekked for an hour up a rocky cliffside path to a mountain-top temple before an afternoon on the balcony and spaghetti (after 25 curries in a row this seemed acceptable) for dinner, and this morning we've had an object lesson in the art of making chai. I can report that it is similar to making a cup of tea.

My highlight of Pushkar, if not the trip so far, was Tweedie fixing the strap on my bag with her travel sewing kit while I lay in the sun.

Enjoying the chilled vibe in Pushkar, so may stay for a few days longer depending on whether our hotel can fix the television in our room ahead of the 2nd India-SA test tomorrow.

Over.

Sleepers

Bani Park Palace Hotel, Jaipur

When last we spoke Alex and I were about to go and catch a sleeper train from Agra to Jaipur. This would leave Agra at 20.10 and arrive in Jaipur at 01.25. Upon arrival at Agra Fort station (an hour early, just in case) we were told the train would be late by an unspecified amount of time ("perhaps one hour, perhaps more"). After 2 hours sitting on our rucksacks and a lot of Twenty Questions the train pulled in, due to depart 20 minutes later. Sleeper class didn't seem very chilled, essentially 3-tier bunk beds not really long enough to comfortably house a 6'2" westerner, and with no seeming regard paid to the reservation system to which we had so carefully adhered. With a mother and daughter and an old man asleep in our respective berths we managed to find two adjacent top bunks and squeeze into them. A word of warning at this juncture - "air-cooled" does not mean "air-conditioned", it means there is a window. After a few minutes in what increasingly felt like a horizontal prison cell at altitude, and with the train nearly ready to depart, someone arrived at my berth and said he had booked it. I said someone was asleep in the one I booked. I showed him my ticket, and with the engines beginning to fire he said we were on the wrong train. We scrambled off in time.

After a change of platform and a further hour's wait, with the train now nearly three hours late and with no prospect of getting to Jaipur before 4am, we decided to stay another night in Agra and try again in the morning. Upon return to the city we walked round every hotel we could find without luck, before returning to our previous night's lodgings for one more plead. A gem of a man (if you're in Agra stay in the Sidartha Hotel) switched some people around and we were shown up to a little bit of loveliness in the shape of a clean bed and functioning lavatory. Rather pathetically it was one of the best feelings of my life.

We resolved not to catch any more sleeper trains.

Took the bus to Jaipur the following day, which at 5-and-a-half hours isn't much longer than the train. Not a great deal to report from the Pink City so far. It is significantly more commercially developed than our previous locations; more lights and shops with recognisable names. After what felt like our first brush with untamed India this doesn't feel like a bad thing. With this in mind I spent a good couple of hours this morning watching the test match on the tv in our room. India are getting rolled over, but Sehwag got a pleasing hundred. I will check the Times of India tomorrow to see if it is this feat or Dale Steyn's game-changing seven wickets which generates more excitement.

First Kingfisher last night. I hadn't particularly missed it and won't be hurrying to have another. Wouldn't mind some meat though.

They won't all be this long, or this frequent. I just wanted to tell that train story.

Over.

Taj Mahal

Shahjahan Hotel, Agra

Woke at the crack of dawn today to get to the Taj for sunrise. Sadly a few hundred others had the same idea but we still got a great sighting as morning broke. It is a spectacular building upon which I don't need to expound. I would have expected a plethora of tourist attractions to have grown up on the back of the Taj, but aside from a very pleasant 'nature park' there isn't a huge amount else in Agra.

Partly for this reason, and partly because Alex's friend recommended it, when we arrived yesterday morning (on an exceedingly comfortable train) we got straight onto a one-hour bus (bearing little resemblance to anything on which I've ever swiped an Oyster card) to nearby Fatehpur Sikri, where a new capital city was built in the 16th century but almost immediately abandoned due to water shortage. It remains well-preserved and was an unexpected treat to walk around, although part of its appeal was the escape it offered from the seemingly ubiquitous touts. All part of the fun.

Before Agra we spent a further day exploring Delhi, seeing the Red Fort and a 25,000 capacity mosque as well as our first encounter with real real poverty. Alex cried. I couldn't blame her.

Watched my first cricket in India this morning, the first session of the India-Sotuh Africa test match in a cafe. The only people watching, in the only place showing it in the town, were me, Alex and another English bloke. The waiter said Indians think five days is too long for a cricket match. I disagreed.

Over.

Arrivals

Smyle Inn, Delhi

It's nearly the end of our first full day. I haven't found myself yet.

Arrived yesterday, via a disappointingly western Dubai and a one-and-a-half hour wait to get through passport control upon landing at Indira Gandhi International. Took a tiny, decrepid black Suzuki taxi ride to our hotel just off the main bazaar. That half-hour journey alone showed me a dozen new sights; donkeys grazing roadside, a family of three riding a motorbike with the toddler peeking over the handlebars, two-lane carriageways taking cars five-abreast. After check-in we took a stroll around the surrounding area we took a stroll, had some food and collapsed.

Today saw National Museum and Gandhi memorial and chilled in Lodi Gardens in the afternoon. Still waiting for the first disaster. The only slight problem so far is the ubiquity of overbearing salesmen desperate to sell their particular goblets (backgammon sets are a bizarre favourite) or lead you to a particular tourist site where they get commission. The best tactic, apprently, is to avoid eye contact and ignore everything they say. This I can do.

A highlight today was a small beturbaned bag-seller hearing me speaking English and exclaiming "Alright geezer" in a passable Cockney accent.

Chadders, you never prescribed a code phrase but if you had done I would not have needed it yet. Also, they have cheesecake in a German bakery down the street.

Congratulations to the Tooting Premier League champions.

Over