Sleeper Train - If Only!!

Written by Ian. Comments by Em in blue.
Last night had to be the cheapest meal ever - the place was recommended in Em's bible (aka Lonely Planet!) but was a bit of a shack (to put it politely!!). We had a main meal and drinks for two pounds TOTAL, but I had to admit that I was still hungry afterwards so we elected to go back to our hotel later on in the evening for pudding - more of that later.

He can't complain for less than a pound each!

Em's going to kill me for saying this so let's hope she doesn't proof read this entry before I publish - ha ha.....

I always proof read Mr Burgess!

.....Well she was wearing white linen trousers at the aforementioned shack and managed to spill some curry on them - DOH. It get's better though.... she then proceeded to douse her trousers in water to try and remove the stain and spilt the water on the plastic garden chairs that we were sitting on (I told you it was a classy place!!). Without going into too much detail Em started to panic as white linen trousers tend to go see-through when wet and the water on the chair had made it's way to Em's behind!!!....

White linen trousers ruined, although managed to get most of the curry out. Anyway, in India no-one will notice!

So we ended up going back to the hotel sooner than we expected and then we headed off to a show of authentic Indian dancing in Udaipur as we were killing time before our 10:20pm sleeper train to Udaipur. It wasn't a bad show but we smelt a rat when the finale was a woman carrying 10 china urns on her head whilst dancing and doing a range of 'stunts'. The pots were stuck together and were much lighter than real china so we think that they were probably made from papier-mache!!

So after this extravaganza we went back to the hotel for our dream-boat pudding (banana, chocolate sauce, and three types of ice cream) Mmmm

Then it was time to leave and we opted to get a tuk-tuk to the train station. Em wasn't too happy as I didn't drive a hard enough bargain - OK, to be fair I didn't drive a bargain at all - but it was only two pounds. A rip off given the journey took five minutes at the most! we've let people off too lightly so far! We're going to start driving a hard bargain in Jaipur!

We get to the station and are be-friended by an Indian guy who is probably just trying out his English but we're both suspicious of his motives. The conversation wasn't exactly flowing as we could understand more than a word or two of his English - oh well, it was still better than our Indian!!

The train arrives and the carriage is in complete darkness - Oh My God! Luckily this was due to the fact that the guard hadn't turned on the power so minutes later we could see where we were sleeping in our cattle class carriage. I won't go in to too many details here as I'm sure Em has some stuff that she wants to get off her chest but I got about 20 minutes sleep on the 8 hour train journey and Em got 2.5 hours. What I will say is that calling it a Sleeper Train would definitely be a breach of Trade Descriptions Act back in the UK. The toilet was quite classy too - a hole (literally) in the floor of the carriage.

When we first got on the train, I actually thought it might be OK and very similar to the Chinese sleeper trains...the toilet is actually cleaner and less smelly than the Chinese ones!

At first we find we're the only ones for about 12 beds, so get optimistic it'll be a good journey!

We get onto our "sleepers" about midnight. It's quite chilly as we're near the door, so I've put a jumper on. I manage to fall asleep quite quickly as I'm quite tired. I do however wake up about 2.30am when someone has put the light on and people start chatting (loudly) for what seems like an eternity. From this point onwards I'm unable to get back to sleep. It's freezing (even with a jumper on), having to share my sleeper with my rucksack, and the continous racket of people chatting all ads to a no-sleep journey. I feel (and look) dreadful when I get up!


I have to laugh because Ian is handling this all so well...I feel a bit bad as I told Ian it would be a great experience and of course he'd get some sleep...

We arrived in Jaipur about 30 minutes late and decided to walk to the hotel which was only supposed to be 1km according to the Lonely Planet guide. What a walk that turned out to be - we were severely plagued by rickshaw and tuk-tuk drivers - I reckon we probably had 40-50 of them pestering us en-route. It's apparently a know scam - they offer to take you anywhere for 10 rupees and then proceed to take you to the hotel that they get commission from. This is the point where Ian gets cross and almost screams at one of the tuk-tuk drivers...I've never seen Ian cross, it was almost funny! However, just walking towards the police station scares them off!

We get to the hotel at 7:30am - well before the midday check-in time but have had an Indian breakfast (A stuffed chipati type item with curd and a coffee) and promised a room by 9:30am which is really good. We're both shattered but are determined to see some of the city before we collapse in a heap.

Unique Udaipur

After a few days of madness in Mumbai and we leave for Udaipur. We haven't yet got into backpacker travel yet and decided to fly there. This, however in itself was an experience. We got stopped by security just trying to get into the airport (however, I'm starting to think that this is an 'Em-thing' after getting stopped going toi Newcastle a few weeks ago!! - It's a good job that I look like a good, honest, upstanding citizen!!) wanting to see our tickets and passport. As we had e-tickets, this kind of confused the guard and we had a bit of a hard time trying to convince him to let us in!

We finally get our little plane to Udaipur for the one hour journey (which impressively included a meal!) ...don't believe everything you hear about Indian airlines!

The funniest part of the journey was landing at the airport to find no-one was moving..it then suddenly dawned on us after about five minutes that it was going on to other destinations! It was a good thing we didn't stay seated any longer or we would have ended up in Jodhpur! We missed the terminal bus so had to walk across the runway to the airport amidst some strange looks from the guards! Even funnier was trying to find an ATM machine...we ended up in army grounds next to the airport! (Em swears blind that it was nothing to do with men in uniform!!)

However, nothing in India can surprise you....aimlessly wandering cows, donkeys, oxen and children in the street, a shop offering "pain free ear and nose piercing" on a sign underneath a window full of knives, people having a bath with soap (not sure it is worth it!) in the most dirty lake you can imagine, regularly having to jump (literally!) out of the road before a tuk-tuk runs you down, or perhaps the stories of everyone you speak to who is "coming to England for an art exhibition and would like to show you art"


We've started to get quite hardened to the endless stream of traders wanting to give us a tour or show us their wares - almost to the point of being rude!! That's that role that I seem to have at the moment!! - Em walks off whilst I end up telling the person harassing us 'where to go'! :-) Now I know why Em invited me!! ha ha

Anyway, it's all an experience and one I would not have wanted to miss.

We arrive at the gorgeous Jagat Niwas Palace Hotel where we have splashed out twenty pounds each (Bargain!) to stay in a lake facing deluxe room which is quite literally breathtaking. We have a large window seat where we can sit and watch the world go by.

For dinner we head to Ambrai hotel across the lake for a meal...where the views probably surpass that of our hotel. We sit on a mosaic terrace with wrought iron tables and chairs in candlelight looking at the view of the City Palace which is completely lit up and reflecting in the lake. For indian prices, the seven pounds each we paid was probably a premium, but you have to laugh if you consider how much it would cost in the UK.

We end up leaving the restaurant at 10:30pm and get slightly (only slightly mind you!!) lost as by that time the shops had mostly shut up so most of Udaipur was in darkness. Ironically Em neglected to bring her ONE candle power torch - actually that's probably being a bit generous!! However, even at that time of night we had to fear for our lives - the motorcyclists and tuk-tuk drivers were using Udaipur as a practice circuit for the Indian Grand Prix!!

We're now heading for Jaipur, but the forward travel plans have not quite gone to plan. We have tried to book a train in advance for Jaipur but the only sleepers available are the cheapest non-airconditioned beds. So, we decided to rough it (which we're guessing it will be) and ride with the experience.


By the way, in case you haven't spotted it we've been geeky (ok I've been geeky!!) and have set up a Picassa web album - you can see previews of all of the rest of our pics on the right hand side of the blog.

Mumbai Madness

Comments from Ian in blue italics

Well, the last few days in Mumbai can only be described as a whirlwind!

Took off from Terminal 5 LHR (which is amazing by the way!), arriving in Mumbai around 10 hours later.

As expected Em seems to be fascinated by the 500ukp+ handbags in Terminal 5!! What is it with women and handbags!! Unfortunately I couldn't stretch to a handbag so I satisfied one of Em's other cravings - Starbucks!! - much more affordable!!

Our first experience of India was on the flight - we couldn't believe how demanding the Indians were. The in-flight meal was our first taste of India (excuse the pun!!) - it was our first airline curry (and it was actually not bad!!). So a few hours of sleep and a spicy breakfast later we arrive in Mumbai.

We exit the airport to a huge sea of faces and finally spot the little card that is being held up with our name on it by our rip-off taxi driver.

Rip-off being a relative term given that it only cost us 12ukp but compared to the proper price of 7ukp it was still a bit steep! It was nice not to have to negotiate with one of the thousands of vintage black/yellow cabs as soon as we'd got off the plane though.

Frustratingly, the drive from the airport 30km to our hotel took 1.25 hours and with the sun beating through the car was quite uncomfortable.

On the way to the hotel, I feel myself falling in love with the place already...it just feels like the most amazing place that I can't wait to explore.

We got very little sleep on the plane (although Ian did mention that at one point I had my mouth open and my head on one side, so I must have slept a bit!) We are both shattered by the time we reach the hotel (3pm) and decide to have a snooze...which unfortunately turned into a few hours and we didn't wake up until 7pm!

We head out into the fort area of Mumbai for something to eat...there's a lonely planet recommended place just round the corner from the hotel, although there's no-one in it and it looks like it's about to shut. We wander past a small eatery which seems busy so decide to try it. The food is lovely and for the bargain of 183 rupees (2.40) we have plenty to eat and drink, plus take away a bottle of water with us. Em is such a cheap date!!

By 10pm we're back at the hotel.

We wake up in the middle of the night as in Em's pursuit to quieten the noisey air con in the room she'd managed to switch the unit to fan only (even though she swears it did it itself - women eh!!). As a result we woke up at 1am to 29degC heat.

On Thursday morning we wake up and wander outside where it seems oddly quiet. Given we've never been to Mumbai before, we're not sure if it's normal or not.

We take a walk around Mumbai, covering sites such as the town hall, Mumbai University, The oval cricket ground and the High Court.

We do manage to start accumulating photos though and got quite a few pics of the architecture (yes there is architecture - honest!!) as well as pictures of people sleeping in the strangest places (see photos!).

We've not found anywhere open to eat, so we head down to the Gateway of India where we had planned to go across to Elephanta Island...we're sure to find something to eat down there...

We get to the Gateway of India and the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel to find most of India's media camped outside. We wander through the crowd and stand in awe at the fire that seems to have broken out in the hotel. We're only 100 yards from the hotel and we watch like everyone else as the fire brigade battle to put the fire out.

After a while we head back towards our hotel and a young woman stops us and asks if we're with the media. We explain we're not and ask her what has happened, which is when we find out some hostages are being held by terrorists at the hotel. At this stage, it still does not seem a big issue as all the locals are quite relaxed still.

We finally find a place to eat on our way back (Steph, you'll be pleased to hear it was a veggie only restaurant!). The food was just as yummy as our last meal.

Lunch was slightly surreal as we see an elephant walk by as we eat. We did hope to catch up with it on our way back to the hotel but only find 'evidence' of where it had been - I'll leave that bit to your imaginations!! :-)

We get back to our hotel and open the daily newspaper to find them reporting on "Mumbai Under Siege". It feels surreal really, and we think the media has probably blown things out of proportion. We don't let this stop us enjoying ourselves and we head out again to find the Mumbai Bazaars (which actually we don't end up finding!), then a sunset stroll to Chowpatty Beach (past the Oberoi hotel!!).

On our way to the beach, we get stopped by a group of guys who ask us what we are doing out and tell us to "go back". All very odd!

By the time we walk back from the beach, the streets are desserted and nothing seems to be open.

One of the things that did strike us as being weird was the amount of police on the street (but again we weren't to know if this was usual or not for Mumbai). On our way back we stop off at quiet a high class Indian eaterie called, wait for it.....GAYLORDS! It was so posh that the waiter brought the bottles of lager to the table for inspection before opening them as if they were fine wines!!
It's not until we get back to our hotel, turn the TV and phone on that we realise Mumbai really is "Under Siege"!

The phone didn't stop bleeping from family and friends trying to contact us! It's really nice that everyone has been worried about us (in a weird sort of way!)

The weird thing about all of this is how close we'd been able to get to the Taj and the Oberoi without realising there was a problem so it's no wonder it felt like nothing was wrong.

So, after an eventful day in Mumbai, where we've not quite managed to see everything we wanted (might have been a bit scary going to the train station!), we have left Mumbai for Udaipur on our way North.

Luckily for Em we're back in Mumbai towards the end of our trip so she should be able to satisfy her bizarre bazaar craving (aka Indian retail therapy!!) then.

Ian is still smiling, so amazingly the Mumbai/India/Em experience has not scared him off yet.

24 hours to go

Cannot believe how the time has flown! Suddenly, here we are with just 24 hours to go until we fly.

Have started our holiday off in style at Jamie Oliver's new restaurant this evening which was a great start!

Just got home and have finished our synchronised online check in....geekily running two laptops at the same time to ensure we have seats together.

Was a good thing we checked in as soon as possible because there were hardly any seats left for us to choose together!

Now in the stages of wondering if there's anything that's been missed...

Passport...check
Immodium...check
Immodium...check again!!
Malaria tablets...check
Suntan lotion...check

Beginning to feel like a mobile pharmacy...maybe we should do a feature for Chemist+Druggist....

Taxi booked....check...(Thanks Mum!!!)

Anyway here's to our very (34 degrees!!) hot holiday... Looking forward to checking out terminal 5 before we leave... Dior... Gucci... KurtGeiger... Mulberry... Prada... Tiffany, although Ian's shopping probably looks more like this... PC World... Nokia... Sony... Dixons... HMV... Geeky!...

Look forward to updating you from Mumbai..

Em and Ian
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