Since my last entry stopped at the point of Pushkar I will continue about further traveling.
After Pushkar - we went to Jaipur. It was another busy busy city, but we managed to find a nice hostel, quite hidden thus quiet with nice garden and a lot of peacocks (right spelling?). We walked around a bit and decided to finally get away from the cities next day. Thus in the morning we checked out, walked around looking for some breakfast about for 1,5h hours and ended up i n "Escape to Italy" coffee chain ;)
We spent in a fort quite a bit of time and after that got some chunky food (we wanted get some fruits and eat them in a park but while we left the fort - there was no fruit stands any more :(
In this park when we entered- we picked the side where was less people -= on the other side was huge group of quite loud Indians. But after 15min everybody - accidentally - started walking around in our side of the park, groups of 5-10 girls were walking those 200m back and forth ;) And Daniel finally felt nice b/c those girl for first time ever, where checking him out instead of boys checking me and Alizia out ;)
After the fort, we walked in Jaipur again, saw the pink city (old town build by British with nice, regular, square plan of roads and every building painted in piunk. Lots of bazars again though which again was tiring. At the end of the day - nice dinner with meet in tandoori restaurant - pricey though.
And at midnight took overnight bus to Agra to see Taj Mahal!!!! Yay! We arrived 6am after freezing a/c bus ride, climbed the roof top restaurant with view of Taj Mahal in dawn :) Sweet.
So if u wanna ask what I did on my 24th bday - I saw Taj Mahal - one of the most striking UNESCO World Heritage Site. Pretty sweet but it's not the end of the story,, b/c on the same time it was the most ridiculous bday ever.
After Taj Mahal - which is really beautiful - more than we all expected - really striking - Al stayed in a cafe b/c she felt sick. But me and Daniel - we went to see Agra and it was the biggest mistake ever. People there are the worst I've ever met. They are very veryu very pushy, don't let you go, cheat every single time. Of course - those are seller people - not locals.
But we went to see fort, very nice as well - but after those 2 - we're done with visiting forts ;) And after fort we went to look for a christian church since it was marked on a map and was SUnday - nice to pray a bit. So - after 0,5h drive (rikshaw driver got lost) we finally got there. There was cathedral - very very nice St.. John's Church (XVIII century) and on a side small church - from 1599.... nice, ey? So I had a bit of time for my own and after that - we were determined to find out buses to Delhi.
Since Pawan told us how to get to Delhi we wanted to find out how to het to ISBT statio - but none of those rikshaw drivers wanted to take us there. Finally,we got back to Alizia and decided to go by train, we got the tickets but those were general one - we were supposed to upgrade them on a train to get seats - but the train was too full to get any. Thus, we decided to get a bus - we wanted to get to this ISBT - but this shitty rikshaw-mafia didnt want to take us there and it was 8km away . They drove us all around from to another tourist office. By that time we already knew they are cheating us but we had no other choice - we wanted to get out of this horrible city. ALizia and Daniel bargained the tic and we were supposed to get a/c bus which hit delhi in 5h.... SO we ended up on non ac bus, which was Indian tourist bus visiting sorrounding temples... We stopped 3 times to see some temples (on the other hand it was nice to see some holy places off the beaten foreign tourist track and see some local, small villages... but if it is in 1am while u were supposed to be in a hotel by that time and it was your bday - it is not that great. Finally we hit Delhi at 3am, we looked around for a place to stay, Pawan used all his connections (on his way back from vacations) to book a hotel for us but we finally didnt end up there. We didnt know where the bus dropped us off. Next day (after 2 nights of bus rides) we slept until 2pm, got off the hotel about 5pm and hidden in a mall ;) It started pouring raining while we were on a rikshaw - it stopped twice b/c the engine got wet ;)
When we hit the mall-Daniel was soaked, my pants looked like I had diarrhea. So I HAD TO go shopping but there was 40% flat so it was ok.
Then Pawan met us in that mall with 2 other friends and took us to a nice coffe place and later on to a dinner. And i got a b-day cake from them!!!! It was such a nice surprise and really delicious dinner and cake :) So we celebrated my bday one day later :)
SO as you can see my bday was a bit ridiculous - on one hand strikingly beautiful Taj Mahal and on the other - horrible fighting over money and being cheated by those people in Agra and horrible 9h bus ride instead of 5h with a/c... Im gonna remember that for a long time! ;)
The problem is that those selling people are really ruining our picture of India.
So from Delhi we went to Pawan's collage city - Dehra Dun and saw there 2nd biggest in the world Buddhist monastery...
It was amazing, beautiful, quiet and very very hot. From D.D. we took the train to Haridwar and saw the Ganges and all rituals by dusk - going into holy water, tousands of people, some hindu music, people throwing into water buckets of flowers with candles inside - very very nice atmospeher and great experience.
And from Haridwar - overnight a/c train so we slept quite ok and Today morning we arrived to Haldwani. Pawan's freind picked us up and we will be staying at his and his wife place tonight. They're very very nice, she took the day off and hired driver for their car and took us to Nainital - very nice small Indian holiday city, very peacful, calm and not pushy. Lake, bazars, mountains, coffe, cake, temples..... great day :)
They're very sweet couple, he is from higher cast, she is from lower so his mother doesn't accept her and didnt give him blessing but they got married anyways b/c of love (they met in high school). Great story but it must very tough for them.
And now we're using internet at their carrer/student institute which they are running as a part of HCL company. :)
Tomorrow plan for camping, later on Almora and closer and closer to Himalaya :) Yaaaaay!!!
Ok, I gotta go so "see you" next time :)
After Pushkar - we went to Jaipur. It was another busy busy city, but we managed to find a nice hostel, quite hidden thus quiet with nice garden and a lot of peacocks (right spelling?). We walked around a bit and decided to finally get away from the cities next day. Thus in the morning we checked out, walked around looking for some breakfast about for 1,5h hours and ended up i n "Escape to Italy" coffee chain ;)
Check out how well the crossroad is coordinated by a policeman :)
But after that we went to Amer Fort, 8km away from Jaipur and it was just an awesome place!!! Huuuuge fort, beautiful views and nice art inside. And to the fort we've rode an elephant. But it happened to be nothing really special ;) Very uncomfortable and slow ;) But done and "check" on the list of things to be done in the life ;)
We spent in a fort quite a bit of time and after that got some chunky food (we wanted get some fruits and eat them in a park but while we left the fort - there was no fruit stands any more :(
In this park when we entered- we picked the side where was less people -= on the other side was huge group of quite loud Indians. But after 15min everybody - accidentally - started walking around in our side of the park, groups of 5-10 girls were walking those 200m back and forth ;) And Daniel finally felt nice b/c those girl for first time ever, where checking him out instead of boys checking me and Alizia out ;)
After the fort, we walked in Jaipur again, saw the pink city (old town build by British with nice, regular, square plan of roads and every building painted in piunk. Lots of bazars again though which again was tiring. At the end of the day - nice dinner with meet in tandoori restaurant - pricey though.
And at midnight took overnight bus to Agra to see Taj Mahal!!!! Yay! We arrived 6am after freezing a/c bus ride, climbed the roof top restaurant with view of Taj Mahal in dawn :) Sweet.
So if u wanna ask what I did on my 24th bday - I saw Taj Mahal - one of the most striking UNESCO World Heritage Site. Pretty sweet but it's not the end of the story,, b/c on the same time it was the most ridiculous bday ever.
After Taj Mahal - which is really beautiful - more than we all expected - really striking - Al stayed in a cafe b/c she felt sick. But me and Daniel - we went to see Agra and it was the biggest mistake ever. People there are the worst I've ever met. They are very veryu very pushy, don't let you go, cheat every single time. Of course - those are seller people - not locals.
But we went to see fort, very nice as well - but after those 2 - we're done with visiting forts ;) And after fort we went to look for a christian church since it was marked on a map and was SUnday - nice to pray a bit. So - after 0,5h drive (rikshaw driver got lost) we finally got there. There was cathedral - very very nice St.. John's Church (XVIII century) and on a side small church - from 1599.... nice, ey? So I had a bit of time for my own and after that - we were determined to find out buses to Delhi.
Since Pawan told us how to get to Delhi we wanted to find out how to het to ISBT statio - but none of those rikshaw drivers wanted to take us there. Finally,we got back to Alizia and decided to go by train, we got the tickets but those were general one - we were supposed to upgrade them on a train to get seats - but the train was too full to get any. Thus, we decided to get a bus - we wanted to get to this ISBT - but this shitty rikshaw-mafia didnt want to take us there and it was 8km away . They drove us all around from to another tourist office. By that time we already knew they are cheating us but we had no other choice - we wanted to get out of this horrible city. ALizia and Daniel bargained the tic and we were supposed to get a/c bus which hit delhi in 5h.... SO we ended up on non ac bus, which was Indian tourist bus visiting sorrounding temples... We stopped 3 times to see some temples (on the other hand it was nice to see some holy places off the beaten foreign tourist track and see some local, small villages... but if it is in 1am while u were supposed to be in a hotel by that time and it was your bday - it is not that great. Finally we hit Delhi at 3am, we looked around for a place to stay, Pawan used all his connections (on his way back from vacations) to book a hotel for us but we finally didnt end up there. We didnt know where the bus dropped us off. Next day (after 2 nights of bus rides) we slept until 2pm, got off the hotel about 5pm and hidden in a mall ;) It started pouring raining while we were on a rikshaw - it stopped twice b/c the engine got wet ;)
When we hit the mall-Daniel was soaked, my pants looked like I had diarrhea. So I HAD TO go shopping but there was 40% flat so it was ok.
Then Pawan met us in that mall with 2 other friends and took us to a nice coffe place and later on to a dinner. And i got a b-day cake from them!!!! It was such a nice surprise and really delicious dinner and cake :) So we celebrated my bday one day later :)
SO as you can see my bday was a bit ridiculous - on one hand strikingly beautiful Taj Mahal and on the other - horrible fighting over money and being cheated by those people in Agra and horrible 9h bus ride instead of 5h with a/c... Im gonna remember that for a long time! ;)
The problem is that those selling people are really ruining our picture of India.
So from Delhi we went to Pawan's collage city - Dehra Dun and saw there 2nd biggest in the world Buddhist monastery...
It was amazing, beautiful, quiet and very very hot. From D.D. we took the train to Haridwar and saw the Ganges and all rituals by dusk - going into holy water, tousands of people, some hindu music, people throwing into water buckets of flowers with candles inside - very very nice atmospeher and great experience.
And from Haridwar - overnight a/c train so we slept quite ok and Today morning we arrived to Haldwani. Pawan's freind picked us up and we will be staying at his and his wife place tonight. They're very very nice, she took the day off and hired driver for their car and took us to Nainital - very nice small Indian holiday city, very peacful, calm and not pushy. Lake, bazars, mountains, coffe, cake, temples..... great day :)
They're very sweet couple, he is from higher cast, she is from lower so his mother doesn't accept her and didnt give him blessing but they got married anyways b/c of love (they met in high school). Great story but it must very tough for them.
And now we're using internet at their carrer/student institute which they are running as a part of HCL company. :)
Tomorrow plan for camping, later on Almora and closer and closer to Himalaya :) Yaaaaay!!!
Ok, I gotta go so "see you" next time :)
Komentarze
Prześlij komentarz