Cafe del mar

 

Bongos and Sax at sunset

Coming soon.

 

Varkarla – the beach of choice

By the time we’d travlled the north, taking tours every day and sleeping on trains,  we were exhausted and were ready for a beach holiday. We flew from Delhi to Trivandrum but couldn’t decide on where to go from here.  Kovalam was meant to be too package holiday and Gokarna was high up the coast and would have meant more overnight trains so we settled on Varkarla which had good recommendations .

As we took our first stroll we knew we had made the right decision. It has a beautiful beach (though not as exotic as some I’ve seen in Malaysia and Thailand) but benefits from the fact that all the restaurants and tourist shops are high up on the cliff so you’re less likely to be hassled by hawkers and the setting feels more natural. The swimming is not very relaxing as its quite rough but if you like dodging giant waves and body surfing you’ll have fun.

 

Ocenaic Hotel

Easy going place a short walk from the sea view (50metres).

Rates as of Feb 2009

Fan cooled room in the house – 700 Rs
Fan cooled Cottage – 1000 Rs

n.b. A.C. rooms in other hotels with a sea view averaged 2000 Rs

 

Kesar’s Hotel Namaskar

Nice enough, but not for a long stay, very helpful staff.

Rates as of Feb 2009

Small Room: 300 Rs
Bigger Room: 400 Rs – we stayed in this size and found it ok for one night
Large Room: 500 Rs

Address:
917 Chandiwalan,
Main Bazar
Pahar Gamji
New Delhi
110055

Email: namaskarhotel@yahoo.com

Phone: 011-2358-3456

 

Taj Mahal

Having seen so many pictures of the Taj Mahal I was expecting not to be blown away, which was good as that was exactly what happened.

As the lonely planet suggests we got up at 5.30am to visit at sunrise. What they don’t mention is you are not allowed in to 7am so we stood around for an hour shivering in the cold and getting agitated as night turned to day. But the light was perfect when we finally got in and well worth the wait as there were very few tourists. I felt a surge of excitement as I saw the Taj Mahal framed in an arched doorway - it was pale pink in the early morning light and much bigger than I expected. After a brief rush to get some shots free from people we sat watching the light reflecting off the brilliant white shrine and enjoying the serene gardens.

We spent about 2 hours wandering round and took about 50 photos, including some dodgy shots of the Taj Mahal reflected in sunglasses! But it was getting hot and as we left the grounds at about 9am they were swarming with tour groups and we felt happy that we had sacrificed a lie in to see it at sunrise.

 

Hotel Sheela Inn

Having walked up and down in the  dark feeling safe/scared by the number of police walking around with huge riffles we found Hotel Sheela Inn.  It was very clean, had a great rooftop restaurant with stunning views of the Taj Mahal and a very smiley helpful owner.

 

Address:
Opp. Jalma (Near Shilpgram Parking)
East Gate Taj Mahal
Agra
282001

Phone:  0091-562-3293437 

www.hotelsheelaagra.com

 

Bus to Agra

It turns out that bus stations are easier to navigate than train stations and for a good price -  R150 each for a 5 hour trip – a better option for daytime travel.

Although a word of warning  – make sure you take snacks with you as the halfway stop charged us the same amount as the ticket for Pringles, crisp’s and 2 packets of biscuits.

 

The textile factory – Scam 2

Predictably after the sightseeing Sameer was keen to take us to view some genuine Rajistan handicrafts. First we were taken to a Gem house where I resisted buying a ring for 150 pounds from a persistent dwarf. Good one. But when we were greeted at a textile factory by a confident salesman and I sensed our shopaholic tendencies might get the better of us.

We were taken to see how they made the prints and decorated the fabrics which was interesting but obviously part of the scam – to make you feel that you are buying something special. Then there was the inevitable move to a comfortable seat in a room laden with textile products and the leading line  ’Please sit, you are my guests here – what would you like to drink’  which indicates you are not going away empty handed.

Pete broke first deciding to buy his mum a printed cloth and then before we knew it we’d bought 2 cushion covers and 3 more pashminas for 80 pounds.

For about 10 mins we were satisfied with our purchases but after refletion realesed that our bartering was poor, we definatly broke too early. We had been scammed again.  Still we liked our purchases and as our salesman said ’…they are special memory from Ragistan’.

 

Jai Garh Fort

Sameer was set on us visiting Jai Garh Fort rather than the much talked about Amber Fort. At first we were skeptical and thought maybe this was because he couldn’t drive to the latter. (Pete: I had mentioned that I wanted to take an elephant up to Amber Fort which would have put his car out of business for a few hours)

The fort sits high on a hill overlooking Jaipur and you can even look down on the Amber Fort. The view is stunning and as we wandered around the huge complex we realised that this was a better choice. There were only a few Indian tourists (a couple who wanted our picture!) which helped the ambience and the viewing areas were quiet, breezy amd seemed to echo some of the peace we had felt in Udaipur.