AGRA

Plodding along the well worn tourist trail we made our way to Agra, home of the greatest monument to love, the Taj Mahal. Agra, however, is a city full of historical important and architectural jewels, like the fascinating Agra Fort, Sikandra and Fatehpur Sikri. Agra was the capital of all India under the Moghuls in the 16th-18th centuries, and as a result many magnificent buildings were constructed during that period.

Images of Taj Mahal abound on every street corner, in every shop and stall yet nothing, can capture the dream like quality of the monument itself. Even the throngs of tourists scrambling through the gates and around the monument cannot detract from the Taj Mahal sitting serenely in its stunning setting.

Alice on the "Diana" bench, the one the Princess of Wales famously sat on....alone.

Agra Fort was a bit more exciting for William and James. They particularly liked the two ditches around the fort with their imaginations coming to life with images of a dry moat with leopards and lions, and a wet moat with lurking crocodiles and alligators to keep out the enemy.

The fabulous carved marble screens and baths kept David interested too.

Sikandra is the resting place of the Moghul emperor Akbar the Great, during whose reign India enjoyed a period of religious tolerance, peace, and prosperity.

Unlike the busy area around Taj Mahal, this monument is approached through a garden with deer grazing on the lawns and cheeky monkeys sitting around sunning themselves and grooming each other.

Just outside Agra is Fatehpur Sikri, short-lived glorious imperial capital of Akbar. To escape the crowds and congestion of Agra, the emperor built this magnificent complex of palaces, forts and mosques. However, due to its meagre and inadequate water supply, the capital had to be abandoned after only 14 years occupation.

Alice William and James sitting on Akbars bench!

JAISELMER AND THE THAR DESERT

Our overnight train trip to Jaiselmer was not the "Orient Express" experience that we had hoped but arriving at the "Golden Fort" was well worth the journey.
Jaiselmer, founded in 1156 is the second oldest fort in Rajisthan and sits forbiddingly above the surrounding city and Thar desert. It is a "living" museum as 2000 people still live and work within the citadel . There are few motorized vehicles as the cobbled lanes in the fort are narrow on occasion our way was blocked by a cow or goats!

Jaiselmer became an important staging post on the Silk Road and the merchants and traders of the city became wealthy as a result. Some of their riches were spent on building houses fabulously decorated with intricate carved marble Jali work, covering facades, screens and doorways. Oriel windows and balconies perch over the lanes.

The evenings were spent on the terrace of our hotel watching sunset reflecting on the fort in the distance and taking camels out riding in the desert. With colourful bridles and blankets the camels were a lovely sight and so sweet looking with those long eyelashes!

INCREDIBLE INDIA

Nothing can really prepare you for the the assault on the senses that is India. "INCREDIBLE INDIA" is the slogan of the current tourism campaign launched by the Indian Government.

India IS incredible in the truest sense of the word. From its geographic size and ever changing landscape, to the myriad of ethnic, cultural and religious groups which make up its vast population, India has surprised, delighted, amazed us.

The paradoxes and juxtapositions of this country have made the most profound impressions on us. The medieval co exists alongside the hi tech. The beauty and grandeur of fantastic monuments, temples and palaces abuts the squalor and stench of tented camps and ramshackle huts.

The unimaginable wealth of the upper classes and burgeoning middle classes (growing at a phenomenal rate of 30 million a year) cannot mask the fact that 40% of India's 1 billion plus population live in poverty.

How can a country with nuclear capabilities, satellites and more IT engineers in Bangalore that in the whole of the United States lack basic infrastructure like sanitation, drainage and clean drinking water?

It is impossible to capture all the fantastic scenes we have taken in. The camera is completely inadequate in relaying the delight of our children seeing elephants and camels carrying loads and pulling carts down a busy city thoroughfare or watching the snake charmer entice a cobra out of a basket. Or their distress at seeing the number of children, often younger than they are,begging at busy traffic lights, barefoot, with matted hair and dressed in nothing but filthy rags.

It is rather disconcerting to find yourself in a traffic jam at a round about, looking out of the window with a camel staring back at you. The roads are shared with all manner of conveyance: mahouts atop elephants, camels and oxen pulling carts and wagons laden with heavy loads, horses and ponies, mules and donkeys, tut tut (auto rickshaws) ferrying children to school, and motorbikes and scooters beetling about between them all sometimes carrying whole families of 4 with the ladies sitting sidesaddle, their sarees billowing in the wind. Then there are the buses, trucks and taxis spewing black smoke out of their exhausts casting a haze over the whole scene and the ubiquitous sacred cow meandering across lanes of busy traffic seemingly without a care in the world!

Our excursions in Delhi included driving by the Red Fort and India Gate. We stopped briefly at Humuyan's Tomb, said to be the inspiration for the Taj Mahal, and Raj Ghat, the cremation site of Mahatma Gandhi. The fun was reserved for the bicycle rickshaw ride through the markets of Chandni Chowk, an explosion of colour with shops and stalls spilling their goods into the narrow lanes.

OUR EMAIL ADDRESS

FOR ALL OUR LOVELY FRIENDS BACK HOME HERE IS OUR EMAIL ADDRESS SO WE CAN CONTACT YOU AND REPLY TO YOUR COMMENTS! We can't retrieve your email address from commets left on the blog and also I will then be able to let you know automatically when we publish a new entry so please send me your email address.

NANCY DAVID AND FAMILY CAN BE CONTACTED ON

coundhall@ aol.com

We will reply to you whenever we are in an internet zone!!!

TIGER TOPS...WITHOUT THE TIGERS!

Part of the fun of staying at tiger tops was the accommodation. The Children loved the giant tree house but most of the fun was time spent in the Elephant camp and making "elephant sandwiches". Not quite the culinary experience one would expect...they were for the elephants. But by the way the guide described them you would think he was trying to sell them to us for human consumption..."A tasty combination of rice and chick peas wrapped in tender elephant grass..." yummmmmm!

We went on two safaris on the backs of elephants but not a tiger in sight. They saw us apparently. there were plenty of endangered Asian one horned rhino, on cow with her calf, wild boar and plenty of deer and bird life.

The most memorable experience for the children was the 3 month old baby elephant, and feeding those elephant sandwiches to the adult elephants.

THE BEYOND BIT...TREKKING IN NEPAL

Slowly shedding the shroud of morning mist, the Annapurna range became a companion for our trek through this lovely part of Nepal.

We started a day late as the inclement weather prohibitted any flights from Kathmandu to Pokhara, but we soon made up for lost time. The 42 km "Royal Trek" takes in some amazing countryside and scenery, full of local colour nad interest. Winding its way through rural villages, forest and along ridges, it was a great opportunity to get close to the Nepalese locals.

Our full compliment of staff to include our leader Sadar K.C (Winner of the Wanderlust magazine 2006 guide of the year no less!!) 3 sherpas, a cook, 3 kitchen boys and enough porters to make the full battlion up to 17 in total!
The Gold topped "World Peace" Stupa just outside Pokhara.



Really enjoying this Camping experience!

James having a ride! We were so proud of the children completing this trek without a single grumble! In truth both James and William walked the entire way with the exception of maybe 2 km.

TO KATHMANDU AND BEYOND

A sign saying "Mystical, Magical Nepal" stretches over and above the road from the airport into Kathmandu. Based on first impressions of the chaos that defines the street scape in Kathmandu, it is a stretch of the imagination to find anything magical or mystical about it!
We arrived tired and a little jet lagged from our travels to Nepal from Brazil via London and Delhi. The transport strike on our second day resulted in discovering the city on foot and that is when the magical and mystical ball of string began to unravel itself. Wound up in the jumble of narrow streets, shrines and temples is a city steeped in ancient culture and religious mysticism. Buddhist and Hindu temples stand shoulder to shoulder with royal palaces. Shrines to various Hindu gods are erected on almost every street corner, splashed with coloured dyes and garlands of flowers.

Kathmandu's grey overcast skies are almost unnoticeable as people wear bright and cheerful coloured clothes and there is just so much activity and things to look at!












David just shooting the breeze with some holy men!
The lanes of the Thamel district of Kathmandu are bustling with sights and sounds, and they are shared with honking scooters, bicycles laden down with unimaginable loads of produce, boxes and crates and men and women beetling about with heavy loads in baskets supported on their foreheads!


It is the people that are so interesting to watch whether squatting in doorways selling spices or worshiping at shrines.

SOJOURN IN LONDON

We stopped briefly in London and called Terminal 4 Hilton Hotel home for a few days.

We were met by our dear friend Rob Bailey at the arrivals hall. Just to make sure we kept up the momentum and illusion that we were still travelling and "in transit" he even sported a board with WALLER GANG on it just as our guides have done for the last 6 months. We were joined later in the evening by Rob's partner Bridget and Mike Parker and his lovely bride Eilis. Of course there was only one place to eat that evening...Pizza Express! David had been craving a Capricosa with extra anchovy for months!

The following day we were delighted to see our lovely friend Lisa Eyre, Karen Whittingham, Katy Gregson and Rachel Sansom. These ladies braved high winds, fallen trees and overturned lorries on the motorway to come to see us from Shropshire! And they came bearing gifts too! They were joined by our friend Corrina Britten from Wimbledon and we of course broke open a bottle of bubbly to celebrate every ones safe arrival!

Lucy and Tobin Morris also made what can only be described as a torturous journey by rail to London. Tobin boarded the "fast" train from Holyhead to London meeting Lucy at Crewe. Snailing along a 50km per hour the train finally gave up and the rest of the journey was by bus!

Rory was thrilled to see Tobin as he had no idea he was coming and we were all so glad to see familiar faces. It has held the homesickness at bay and set us up nicely for the rest of our trip.

We would just like to express our thanks to all of you who made the trip to the Hilton at Heathrow ( especially in such adverse travelling conditions!) and for all the thoughtful gifts and best wishes. It really meant so much to all of us. And we will look forward to seeing the rest of you next summer!