Andy and Karly's Asia Trip

On the run.........

If ever there was a sign that perhaps Andy had made the wrong decision, by proposing to Karly, then this must be it. Ever since that fateful day at the Taj Mahal both Andy and Karly have had the shits! (Karly wants to point out that when we say "we have the shits" we DON'T mean the Australian term for being annoyed!).

This has meant that the last 5 days have been very boring for us. We had to spend an extra 2 days in Agra, because we couldn't face the 5 hour bus journey that awaited us. Especially as the bus didn't have any toilets. All we ended up doing was spending the whole time in bed, or running to the loo.

Moving on, we are now in a place called Jaipur. This is most famous for the centre of the town being pink (though we think it's more Terracotta). It was painted pink as a tribute to King Edward VII, when he visited the place in 1876, and they have kept it that colour ever since. Probably just for the tourists.

As a treat for us, we have chosen to stay in a nice hotel. It used to be a palace, and it has a TV, hot water, toilet roll and all the other "luxuries" that our previous hotels haven't had. We have taken some photos, which we will put on this blog at some point (we are having trouble downloading the pics at the moment).

Thanks to everyone who has emailed us to say congratulations. We will reply to you all, but we are really busy at the moment e.g. drinking lots of water, having lots of Imodium etc.

Andy & Karly

We're engaged!!!!

Andy proposed in front of the Taj Mahal. It was very romantic......


You can view the pictures at;

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2AbtGjFi0ZMX5g

Also there are more photos from our last blog entry that we have just put on. To view these go to;

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2AbtGjFi0ZMX1Q

Our last days in Delhi.

On Sunday we went to the National Museum of India. Here we saw lots of stone statues of Krishna, Vishnu (the elephant god with many arms) and other various important people. On the right is a picture of Andy in front of the Temple Chariot that sits outside the museum. This was made as a tribute to one of the gods..............we forget which one.

The museum covered India's history over the last 4000 years. Andy's favourite section was the Armory, displaying all of the swords, spears, armor and guns that various Indian Kings used to suppress the poor with over the centuries. He also liked some of the very "realistic" and well proportioned statues.

After the museum we went shopping and Karly bought a salwar kameez (Indian dress, with trousers and scarf). She'd look like a real local now if it weren't for her blonde hair and the big English guy in the cowboy hat that accompanies her everywhere.

In the evening we went and saw the Lotus Temple, Karly thinks it looks a little like the Opera House. Its supposed to be in the shape of a Lotus flower, but Andy couldn't see the resemblance. Next to the Lotus Temple we went for dinner at a restaurant called Govindas. This was a strictly vegetarian place run by Hare Krishnas. Karly loved the food (in fact she went up 3 times for more helpings!). Andy thought the food was good, but a few sausages would have improved it.

On our last day we went shopping at a local market called the Dilli Hatt. This was pretty much full with stands selling wood carvings, paintings, jewellery and other hand made stuff. In the evening Dr Giri invited us to dinner with him, his wife and son. We had some very nice home made Indian food, and we both ate way too much.

We are now in a place called Agra (where the Taj Mahal is). We are planning on going to see it this afternoon, but at the moment its raining quite heavily, so i'm not sure how good our photos are going to be! Also Karly has the flu so she might look a bit rough.

We have noticed that nearly every attraction that we have been to has 2 prices. For example, the Taj Mahal charges 20 Rupees for Indians (which is about 25 pence) and 750 Rupees for tourists (which is close to 10 pounds). Obviously this must be because the average Indian earns very little, and also the average tourist can easily afford 750 Rupees, but even so Andy feels a little ripped off!

The Red Fort and Gandhis' Glasses.

The driving in Delhi reminds us of dodgem cars. There have been so many close calls but somehow they never connect. We've seen entire families on motorbikes. Our favourite was a dad driving , with a mum sitting side saddle on the back holding a sleeping baby. And to think of the fuss they made when Brittney held Sean Preston on her lap in the front seat. We are slowly getting the hang af bargaining. We have had some pointers from Dr Giri on technique and what prices roughly should be so I don't think we're getting ripped off. Karly has started wearing Andy's clothes as men seem to stare at her boobs and 'accidentally' bump into her if she wears clothes that reveal any kind of womanly shape. The tops she bought with her aren't particularly tight and they cover her shoulders and arms so she thought they'd be fine but no. She looks very frumpy in Andy's clothes yet the men still stare, but not so much at her breasts.

Today we had our first trip in an AutoRickshaw (basically the same as one of those old bicycle rickshaws that you see in the films, but this one is powered by a motorbike). It is a very firghtening experience, as the Rickshaw drivers dont really seem to stop for anything (lights, people, other cars etc.). The only few times they do actually stop at lights, we then get bombarded by women and children (often with some sort of disability) trying to sell us flowers, or just plain begging.

The first place that the rickshaw took us too was the Red Fort. This is a big red fort that was built hundreds of years ago by a Mogul King of India. It had been invaded many times over the years, most recently by the English (hurray!). It had loads of different palaces inside its walls, mainly because each new King that took over added a new bit for himself.

Stuff we learnt today: Gandhis' first name was not originally Mahatma, it was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi He was given the title Mahatma (meaning Great Soul) by the Indian people. I'm sure Hoda might tell you something different, but this is want we learnt at the Gandhi musuem!

Here's a link to our photos of above;

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2AbtGjFi0ZMXxA

Hello all,

We have arrived in India, safe and well. The journey from the airport was very chaotic, with our driver generally weaving from lane to lane, and beeping his horn at just about everything that moved. Sometimes it proved quite difficult to see which side of the road we were supposed to be on!

The place we are staying is very nice, and located in an area which isn't very touristy, so we are getting a real genuine experience of India. Thanks to Hoda for organising it (Dr Giri is friendly and helpful).

So far the food has been good (and all cooked properly, cause we haven't had any Delhi belly). Yesterday Andy had a chicken tandoori and Karly had lentils with rice, when we went to a place called the Deer Park. This is, funnily enough, a park full of loads of deers running around.

Other then that we haven't done much else, as we've been sleeping most of the time. Hopefully our next entry will have some more interesting things to write about (as we are planning on going to see the Red Fort in Old Delhi tomorrow, as well as Gandhi's monument).

Hope to hear from you soon,
Andy and Karly

P.S. the picture above was taken ages ago (we just havent taken any pictures in India yet!).

The email addresses you can reach us on while we're travelling are:

andypigott@hotmail.co.uk

karly.loy@hotmail.co.uk