India
(14 Mar 2008 to 24 Mar 2008)
I went to India with Avis, Wendy, Della and Louisa.
This was not a very good trip because it was too hot, some cities were too dirty and we spent too much time in transportation.
Most of us had some digestive system problems. I had pains in my lip, tongue and nose.
Our guide (Mr. Ashok) and our driver (Mr. Bagga Sigh) were very nice.
Ashok bought us oranges and bananas.
He also paid money to the poor people for us.
The Holi festival was very interesting, we played colour powder
.
All the cities we visited were in Rajastan.
99% population of Rajastan are Hindu.
The Rajastan women covered their faces when they were not in their homes.
They carried water pots by their heads
and
they had to do this twice or
three times a day.
In ancient times, the queens and princess in Rajastan did not go out and meet officers, they had to look at men through Jali (stone lattice window in Hindustani). They also looked through the jali for dancing or parties in the palace. Ordinary women looked through the jali for strangers at home and to check who's knocking at the door.
Click here to see what Louisa said (much more interesting than my words)
Expenses
14 Mar 2008
From Hong Kong to New Delhi
I had noodle dinner in the Cathay Business Lounge.
While Avis was upgraded to business class, the others lined up very long queue to get to our seats because the plane's corridor was blocked by the passengers who were putting their bags in the racks.
When we arrived New Delhi, it was very long queue again to pass the immigration. The airport maintenance work was in progress.
15 Mar 2008
From New Delhi airport to Mandawa, stayed in Hotel Mandawa Haveli.
Ashok and Bagga picked us at the New Delhi airport
. It was
a five-hour
drive from the airport to Mandawa in Shekhawati. We stopped for nature
calls and breakfast 
. It was
a very expensive breakfast (USD 7-8 each).
Some workers slept outside the ground floor and on the roof top. The
near by bricks factories made the environment so dusty that we could
not take clear photographs 
.
On the way, we saw many cows, many sheep and many camel carts with big ball grass for cows
.
We changed some Indian rupees in a bank
and
then go to the hotel
.
We found that the exchange rate in the hotel was better than that in the bank. We were warned by a hotel guest as we were very noisy.
We had lunch in the restaurant of Heritage Hotel
and
bought some
bracelets 
.
As it was too hot, Ashok suggested to start sightseeings in the afternoon. We visited many havelis (big house) which was famous for the paintings
. We also
saw some minarets (poles) 
which
were symbols for
water wells.
We visited a hotel inside a fort. We saw many peacocks in the hotel, in the street and house walls. Ashok brought us to a shop, but we were not interested in the cloth of the shop.
We had buffet dinner and enjoyed Rajastan traditional dance in our hotel (the dance was just so so).
16 Mar 2008
From Mandawa to Bikaner, stayed in Hotel Sagar.
We had breakfast in the hotel.
On the way to Bikaner, we took rest in the Desert Resort. The shopkeeper gave Wendy and Louisa stickers to cool them down and we promised to send him back our photos.
After checked in Hotel Sagar
, we had
lunch in the restaurant of Hotel
Harasar Haveli 
. It was
a very good restaurant. The food was great and
the staff assisted us to inform Hotel Sagar, so that Ashok would pick
us in the restaurant.
We visited Junagarh Fort which was constructed in several centuries
.
The fort had never been attacked. It was mainly built by sandstone. The
sandstone were covered by sea shell and polished by coconut, so it
looked like marbel rather than sandstone
. The
fine golden drawings are
painted by a few hair. They only drew vegetables, flowers and fruit.
They did not draw animals.
In ancient times, there was a swimming pool in the open area of the fort. The maharaja slept on very low bed to prevent murderer hiding beneath the bed
. As
there was no crops, no agriculural products in
Bikaner, they earned money mainly from wool textile, sandstone and
military.
It was impossible to travel to the old town with a car, we went there by tuk tuk (three wheeler)
. Some
quarrels among the tuk tuk drivers.
In the old town, we visited some sandstone havelis
. The old
town was
very dirty, crowded. The roads were very busy and were full of
pedestrians, tuk tuk, camel carts, horse carts, cow carts, ....
Then we visited the only Jain temple with painting (others with carving statues). Due to the shortage of water, the temple was built by butter. The priest was very funny. He took some interesting photos and played musical intruments for us
.
Then we went to the camel breeding farm. The Bikaner camels were good at transport because they were strong and powerful. The Jaisalmer camels were good at running. The Kachchli camels were good at milk product. Some male camels reproduced with camel outside the farm, but the best male camels were for internal use only. We paid extra money to watch camel mating
. We also
has some tea and coffee with camel milk.
Then we took sunset photos 
. Ashok
brought us to an expensive restaurant
for dinner.
17 Mar 2008
From Bikaner to Jaisalmer, stayed in Hotel Nariyan Niwas Palace.
We had breakfast in the Sagar Hotel. We walked to the Lalgarh Palace
.
The palace was owned by two brothers and half of the palace was changed
to a hotel (USD 300 for 1 night). We had drinks in the beautiful
restaurant in the hotel 
.
On the way to Keechan, we took rest in a hotel. There were many many cranes in Keechan
. The
children in Keechan begged for money 
. When we
and the children walked near, the birds flew away.
We had lunch in an expensive restaurant and then continue to drive to Jaisalmer. We checked in Nariyan Niwas Palace hotel
. Then we
watched
sun set in the private property of maharaja.
We had dinner and enjoyed dance in the Jaisalmer Junction restaurant
.
18 Mar 2008
Jaisalmer, stayed in Royal Camp.
Nariyan Palace was a beautiful hotel, but Della found a piece of shit outside our room and she fell down inside our room.
There was a special swimming pool in the hotel
. I
could not and did not want to swim in such a swimming
pool.
We had breakfast in the hotel. Then we visited a lake (full of cat fish)
,
fort 
,
havelis 
. We meet
a men with very long beard 
there and
we
bought some postcards there.
We had lunch in a roof top restaurant that I had been there in 2000.
Bagga drove us to a camp, however it was not our camp. Then we went to the wrong camp again. Finally, we arrived the Royal camp in Sam sand dune. It was deadly hot. There were many many flies. Bagga also warned us to take care our belongings in the camp.
We had camel ride in Sam, veiwing really beautilful scenery
.
After sun set, we had dinner and watch Indian traditional dances in the camp. The guests of Royal camp were mainly local Indians. A group of students stayed there for one night. Some Indian guests in the camp paid the entertainers for me and invited me to enjoy the dances. They thought that I was only 20.
19 Mar 2008
From Jaisalmer to Manvar, stayed in Manvar Camp.
We had breakfast with many flies in the Royal camp.
We visited Pokaran Fort
.
Ashok was very responsible, he looked at each
one very carefully and did not want someone to fall down from the
fort 
.
After lunch, we went to the Manvar resort
. Della
met a group of
peacocks. We waited and slept in the Manvar resort 
, then we
went to the
Manvar camp by jeep.
Gals visited a tribal village with Ashok. I stayed in the Manvar camp
.
The girls gave their pens and hairclips to the village children.
At night, we danced with the child met in the village, had snacks around the stage in the desert
. Then we
had dinner in a restaurant
camp. It was a very deluxe camp 
. In the
starry night, a responsible guard came to Louisa and talked to her.
20 Mar 2008
From Manvar to Pushkar, stayed in Hotel Master Paradise.
After breakfast in the restaurant tent of the Manvar camp, we went back Manvar Resort by a jeep.
Then we left to Jodhpur. Jodhpur is called blue city because the houses were painted in blue. The blue colour made people feel cool and drove away mosquitoes.
We visited Jodhpur Fort, but I did not take any photo because it was too hot. We could see the clock tower and the new palace in the fort.
Then we visited the clock tower
and
bought some bracelets in the
market 
. Ashok
bargained for us. We also bought some curry in a spice
shop. We promised to send some photos back to the spice shop. It was
too late for us to visit the new palace.
It was a very long drive to the holy city Pushkar. Bagga was very funny, he always smiled and talked with animals (eg dogs) and made jokes with other cars passed by.
On the way, we took photos for the blue cows. After having an Italian vegetarian dinner in the hotel, it was 20:40. I found that the hotel toilet policy was quite strange
.
21 Mar 2008
Pushkar, stayed in Hotel Master Paradise.
We had breakfast in the hotel.
We went to the holy lake
. We
visited Brahma Temple 
. In the
lake, the
priests prayed us and we paid the priests. As told by Ashok, we only
paid 100 rupees though the priests ask for USD 1000.
Gals bought some wool shawls in the market and we met some other tourtists (we met in Jaisalmer) again in the Pushkar holy lake market.
We had lunch in the best hotel of Pushkar
. Though
some dishes of meat
were listed in the menu, we were very obedient and we only ordered
vegetables.
Gals went shopping and I went back hotel. Ashok was sick. I gave Della's medicine to him and asked him to take a rest. But, Ashok insisted to walked to the market with me
. Before
we picked the gals, we
enjoyed "Chai" (Indian tea) in a roof top restaurant and met
Bagga
in the Gau Ghat of the Lake for holy bathing.
Holi was a festival to celebrate good harvest. It was fun because everyone played with dry colour powder or wet colour
, but it
was quite
dangerous. Therefore many policemen were on patrol. Local people often
went to Pushkar especially on "full moon" day and Holi festival. We saw
many people were marching to the holy city Pushkar.
We had dinner in the hotel.
22 Mar 2008
Pushkar to Jaipur, stayed in Hotel Mandawa Haveli
As we were warned by the hotel
, we
decided to leave Pushkar as early as
possilbe. We had breakfast at 05:30.
On the way to Jaipur, we played colour with the children
.
We checked in hotel. We enjoyed special programmes arranged by the hotel for Holi. We invited other guests to play colour with us, but they wanted to play colour outside. As the hotel staffs warned us not to make the room dirty, we played colour with Ashok and Bagga on the roof
.
Gals were not allowed to leave the hotel. I went out and visited Ashok and Bagga's hotel which was next to ours. As I did not want Ashok to order drink for me, I drank beer and had some snacks with them. Then we went to the street by a tri-cycle.
After thorough wash, we had sandwich lunch in the hotel.
In the afternoon, we visited wind palace
, bought
sofa cover and walked
street.
We had bbq dinner with Asho and Bagga Sigh
.
23 Mar 2008
Jaipur, slept in flight.
After having breakfast in the hotel, we visited Amber Fort
. We went
up
by jeep instead of elephant because it was very long queue after a long
holiday.
We insisted not to visit gem stone factory, we had lunch and bought books and CD in the museum of the restaurant.
In the afternoon, we visited City Palace
.
Long drive to Delhi, traffic jams due to the long holiday, so we could not have dinner in Delhi, we had dinner in a luxury hotel near airport. Finally, we said "Goodbye" to Ashok and Bagga and wait at the airport.
I went to India with Avis, Wendy, Della and Louisa.
This was not a very good trip because it was too hot, some cities were too dirty and we spent too much time in transportation.
Most of us had some digestive system problems. I had pains in my lip, tongue and nose.
Our guide (Mr. Ashok) and our driver (Mr. Bagga Sigh) were very nice.
Ashok bought us oranges and bananas.
He also paid money to the poor people for us.
The Holi festival was very interesting, we played colour powder
.All the cities we visited were in Rajastan.
99% population of Rajastan are Hindu.
The Rajastan women covered their faces when they were not in their homes.
They carried water pots by their heads
and
they had to do this twice or
three times a day.In ancient times, the queens and princess in Rajastan did not go out and meet officers, they had to look at men through Jali (stone lattice window in Hindustani). They also looked through the jali for dancing or parties in the palace. Ordinary women looked through the jali for strangers at home and to check who's knocking at the door.
Click here to see what Louisa said (much more interesting than my words)
Expenses
| Description |
USD |
HKD |
| India VISA |
- |
315.0 |
| Medical consultation and
malayria pills |
- |
710.0 |
| Travel insurance |
- |
136.5 |
| Flight ticket |
- |
6214.0 |
| Travel agent |
773 |
6106.7 |
| Breakfast, lunch, dinner and
miscellaneous expenditures |
280 |
2212.0 |
| Total |
- |
15694.2 |
14 Mar 2008
From Hong Kong to New Delhi
I had noodle dinner in the Cathay Business Lounge.
While Avis was upgraded to business class, the others lined up very long queue to get to our seats because the plane's corridor was blocked by the passengers who were putting their bags in the racks.
When we arrived New Delhi, it was very long queue again to pass the immigration. The airport maintenance work was in progress.
15 Mar 2008
From New Delhi airport to Mandawa, stayed in Hotel Mandawa Haveli.
Ashok and Bagga picked us at the New Delhi airport
. It was
a five-hour
drive from the airport to Mandawa in Shekhawati. We stopped for nature
calls and breakfast 
. It was
a very expensive breakfast (USD 7-8 each).
Some workers slept outside the ground floor and on the roof top. The
near by bricks factories made the environment so dusty that we could
not take clear photographs 
. On the way, we saw many cows, many sheep and many camel carts with big ball grass for cows
. We changed some Indian rupees in a bank
and
then go to the hotel
. We found that the exchange rate in the hotel was better than that in the bank. We were warned by a hotel guest as we were very noisy.
We had lunch in the restaurant of Heritage Hotel
and
bought some
bracelets 
. As it was too hot, Ashok suggested to start sightseeings in the afternoon. We visited many havelis (big house) which was famous for the paintings
. We also
saw some minarets (poles) 
which
were symbols for
water wells. We visited a hotel inside a fort. We saw many peacocks in the hotel, in the street and house walls. Ashok brought us to a shop, but we were not interested in the cloth of the shop.
We had buffet dinner and enjoyed Rajastan traditional dance in our hotel (the dance was just so so).
16 Mar 2008
From Mandawa to Bikaner, stayed in Hotel Sagar.
We had breakfast in the hotel.
On the way to Bikaner, we took rest in the Desert Resort. The shopkeeper gave Wendy and Louisa stickers to cool them down and we promised to send him back our photos.
After checked in Hotel Sagar
, we had
lunch in the restaurant of Hotel
Harasar Haveli 
. It was
a very good restaurant. The food was great and
the staff assisted us to inform Hotel Sagar, so that Ashok would pick
us in the restaurant. We visited Junagarh Fort which was constructed in several centuries
.
The fort had never been attacked. It was mainly built by sandstone. The
sandstone were covered by sea shell and polished by coconut, so it
looked like marbel rather than sandstone
. The
fine golden drawings are
painted by a few hair. They only drew vegetables, flowers and fruit.
They did not draw animals. In ancient times, there was a swimming pool in the open area of the fort. The maharaja slept on very low bed to prevent murderer hiding beneath the bed
. As
there was no crops, no agriculural products in
Bikaner, they earned money mainly from wool textile, sandstone and
military.It was impossible to travel to the old town with a car, we went there by tuk tuk (three wheeler)
. Some
quarrels among the tuk tuk drivers. In the old town, we visited some sandstone havelis
. The old
town was
very dirty, crowded. The roads were very busy and were full of
pedestrians, tuk tuk, camel carts, horse carts, cow carts, ....Then we visited the only Jain temple with painting (others with carving statues). Due to the shortage of water, the temple was built by butter. The priest was very funny. He took some interesting photos and played musical intruments for us
.Then we went to the camel breeding farm. The Bikaner camels were good at transport because they were strong and powerful. The Jaisalmer camels were good at running. The Kachchli camels were good at milk product. Some male camels reproduced with camel outside the farm, but the best male camels were for internal use only. We paid extra money to watch camel mating
. We also
has some tea and coffee with camel milk.
Then we took sunset photos 
. Ashok
brought us to an expensive restaurant
for dinner.17 Mar 2008
From Bikaner to Jaisalmer, stayed in Hotel Nariyan Niwas Palace.
We had breakfast in the Sagar Hotel. We walked to the Lalgarh Palace
.
The palace was owned by two brothers and half of the palace was changed
to a hotel (USD 300 for 1 night). We had drinks in the beautiful
restaurant in the hotel 
. On the way to Keechan, we took rest in a hotel. There were many many cranes in Keechan
. The
children in Keechan begged for money 
. When we
and the children walked near, the birds flew away. We had lunch in an expensive restaurant and then continue to drive to Jaisalmer. We checked in Nariyan Niwas Palace hotel
. Then we
watched
sun set in the private property of maharaja. We had dinner and enjoyed dance in the Jaisalmer Junction restaurant
.18 Mar 2008
Jaisalmer, stayed in Royal Camp.
Nariyan Palace was a beautiful hotel, but Della found a piece of shit outside our room and she fell down inside our room.
There was a special swimming pool in the hotel
. I
could not and did not want to swim in such a swimming
pool. We had breakfast in the hotel. Then we visited a lake (full of cat fish)
,
fort 
,
havelis 
. We meet
a men with very long beard 
there and
we
bought some postcards there.We had lunch in a roof top restaurant that I had been there in 2000.
Bagga drove us to a camp, however it was not our camp. Then we went to the wrong camp again. Finally, we arrived the Royal camp in Sam sand dune. It was deadly hot. There were many many flies. Bagga also warned us to take care our belongings in the camp.
We had camel ride in Sam, veiwing really beautilful scenery
. After sun set, we had dinner and watch Indian traditional dances in the camp. The guests of Royal camp were mainly local Indians. A group of students stayed there for one night. Some Indian guests in the camp paid the entertainers for me and invited me to enjoy the dances. They thought that I was only 20.
19 Mar 2008
From Jaisalmer to Manvar, stayed in Manvar Camp.
We had breakfast with many flies in the Royal camp.
We visited Pokaran Fort
.
Ashok was very responsible, he looked at each
one very carefully and did not want someone to fall down from the
fort 
.
After lunch, we went to the Manvar resort
. Della
met a group of
peacocks. We waited and slept in the Manvar resort 
, then we
went to the
Manvar camp by jeep. Gals visited a tribal village with Ashok. I stayed in the Manvar camp
.
The girls gave their pens and hairclips to the village children. At night, we danced with the child met in the village, had snacks around the stage in the desert
. Then we
had dinner in a restaurant
camp. It was a very deluxe camp 
. In the
starry night, a responsible guard came to Louisa and talked to her.20 Mar 2008
From Manvar to Pushkar, stayed in Hotel Master Paradise.
After breakfast in the restaurant tent of the Manvar camp, we went back Manvar Resort by a jeep.
Then we left to Jodhpur. Jodhpur is called blue city because the houses were painted in blue. The blue colour made people feel cool and drove away mosquitoes.
We visited Jodhpur Fort, but I did not take any photo because it was too hot. We could see the clock tower and the new palace in the fort.
Then we visited the clock tower
and
bought some bracelets in the
market 
. Ashok
bargained for us. We also bought some curry in a spice
shop. We promised to send some photos back to the spice shop. It was
too late for us to visit the new palace.It was a very long drive to the holy city Pushkar. Bagga was very funny, he always smiled and talked with animals (eg dogs) and made jokes with other cars passed by.
On the way, we took photos for the blue cows. After having an Italian vegetarian dinner in the hotel, it was 20:40. I found that the hotel toilet policy was quite strange
.21 Mar 2008
Pushkar, stayed in Hotel Master Paradise.
We had breakfast in the hotel.
We went to the holy lake
. We
visited Brahma Temple 
. In the
lake, the
priests prayed us and we paid the priests. As told by Ashok, we only
paid 100 rupees though the priests ask for USD 1000. Gals bought some wool shawls in the market and we met some other tourtists (we met in Jaisalmer) again in the Pushkar holy lake market.
We had lunch in the best hotel of Pushkar
. Though
some dishes of meat
were listed in the menu, we were very obedient and we only ordered
vegetables. Gals went shopping and I went back hotel. Ashok was sick. I gave Della's medicine to him and asked him to take a rest. But, Ashok insisted to walked to the market with me
. Before
we picked the gals, we
enjoyed "Chai" (Indian tea) in a roof top restaurant and met
Bagga
in the Gau Ghat of the Lake for holy bathing.Holi was a festival to celebrate good harvest. It was fun because everyone played with dry colour powder or wet colour
, but it
was quite
dangerous. Therefore many policemen were on patrol. Local people often
went to Pushkar especially on "full moon" day and Holi festival. We saw
many people were marching to the holy city Pushkar.We had dinner in the hotel.
22 Mar 2008
Pushkar to Jaipur, stayed in Hotel Mandawa Haveli
As we were warned by the hotel
, we
decided to leave Pushkar as early as
possilbe. We had breakfast at 05:30.On the way to Jaipur, we played colour with the children
. We checked in hotel. We enjoyed special programmes arranged by the hotel for Holi. We invited other guests to play colour with us, but they wanted to play colour outside. As the hotel staffs warned us not to make the room dirty, we played colour with Ashok and Bagga on the roof
. Gals were not allowed to leave the hotel. I went out and visited Ashok and Bagga's hotel which was next to ours. As I did not want Ashok to order drink for me, I drank beer and had some snacks with them. Then we went to the street by a tri-cycle.
After thorough wash, we had sandwich lunch in the hotel.
In the afternoon, we visited wind palace
, bought
sofa cover and walked
street. We had bbq dinner with Asho and Bagga Sigh
.23 Mar 2008
Jaipur, slept in flight.
After having breakfast in the hotel, we visited Amber Fort
. We went
up
by jeep instead of elephant because it was very long queue after a long
holiday.We insisted not to visit gem stone factory, we had lunch and bought books and CD in the museum of the restaurant.
In the afternoon, we visited City Palace
.Long drive to Delhi, traffic jams due to the long holiday, so we could not have dinner in Delhi, we had dinner in a luxury hotel near airport. Finally, we said "Goodbye" to Ashok and Bagga and wait at the airport.
