Sorry it has taken so long to post! We struggled with wifi connections in Frankfurt as well as Dehli. By the time we got to our destination it was the beginning of the day and we set out on our first adventures.
As a recap, we flew from Edmonton to Toronto and we were able to score first class tickets for this flight thanks to our buddy Colleen from work. We were delayed at take off due to mechanical problems by an hour and a half, but luckily we had a 4 hour layover in Toronto, so we ended up only having 2 hours to kill instead of 4. We were supposed to use the lounge passes we scored from work but they wouldn't work with our tickets since we switched airlines :( but Eva and I felt pretty cool being turned away when there was a lineup of "qualified" people behind us trying to sign in! LOL
Our flights were uneventful for the most part, but I always get a person in front of me that somehow manages to recline their chair farther than the normal limits. On our way from Toronto to Frankfurt, if that wasn't bad enough it was a tiny man and he was very bouncy in his chair which resulted in my water splashing around quite a bit. He also adjusted his head rest and pulled it all the way up (not sure why he would make it taller as he was short) and it flew off the chair and landed in my lap! Thankfully the flight from Frankfurt to Dehli went quickly! We had a longer nap which helped and I have introduce Eva to the game wheel of fortune on my iPad , so we had fun with that.
I think our layover in Dehli was the longest since there wasn't much open (we arrived at 1:00 AM). The real fun began when we got off the plane and had to go through security. They divided people with Indian passports and international passports. When we came down the escalator it hit us that we weren't in canada anymore...there were thousands of people lined up and it was complete chaos! We of course had to go to the international passport line which wasn't moving at all in the 30 mins we waited, so we were expecting it to take hours. All of a sudden the Indian passport lines were almost gone and they started pulling people from the backs of the lineups to move to the Indian passport side. We seriously felt like we had won the lottery! We were done at security in about 10 minutes. When we went to get our luggage I discovered that my suitcase pull handle got broken somewhere along the way so I can't pull it without being hunched over. Apparently I was whining too much on our crazy long walk from baggage claim to the domestic flight area(to fly to Udaipur) so Eva offered to pull my bag, so we swapped! The lady who issued our tickets was not friendly at all and Eva and I didn't even end up sitting together on that flight. Thank goodness it was only an hour and a half flight, which we both slept through.
We arrived in Udaipur on a small puddle jumper plane (like air canada jazz) where you board and De-board on the Tarmac. It was so cold we could see our breath! We ventured on to get a prepaid taxi to take us to our hotel. It was approximately 30 minutes and cost us 600 rupees ($12 CAD). Now this taxi ride was the beginning of our real journey! We drove by extremely poor living conditions and because it was 7:30 AM local time all the children were waiting to be taken to school. We quickly learned two very important lessons. If you hear a horn, move over or you will be run over. Also, Indian people are extremely agile drivers of cars, trucks and motorbikes. We were squeezing I between large trucks (not semi size but think garbage truck size) within inches and at approx 80-100 Kms per hour. We were dodging motorbikes with 3-4 people on each of them, tuktuks (motorized rickshaws) that are supposed to hold three people...crammed with upwards of 8 people. Kids (and I mean toddlers no bigger than 1-2 year olds) sitting on the drivers laps on a motorbike and holding on themselves as their parent is operating the motorbike. No helmets and no seat belts are to be found. The roads have very few rules, the main one is to avoid contact with other cars whether they are oncoming on the wrong side of the road or turning across unmarked intersections, as long as when someone honks at you, you move out of their way, everything seems to go smoothly. I am surprised there isn't more road rage or pile ups, but it seems to work! There were a few times I closed my eyes as it was too close for comfort, and it was best to look at the scenery than to watch the roads.
Once we arrived at our hotel we were relieved. Our room wasn't going to be ready for another hour or so, so we had breakfast at the hotel. Our room is okay, two single beds, the plumbing is interesting to say the least, we can't flush any toilet paper due to the plumbing. The hot water is heated by solar panels and the shower is just in the bathroom with a drain in the floor - no designated shower stall. Once we freshened up we decided to see who else had arrived from the wedding party. We were happy that the grooms brother Jason and his girlfriend Jen and his two kids (ages10&12) were also here, so we decided to go take a look at the local market.
We left our hotel on foot and discovered that the roads are narrow and there are very little sidewalks if any. There are some large concrete sidewalk blocks that cover the sewer that runs below, but some blocks are missing so you must be careful. Between the broken sidewalks and roads, you must avoid contact with the thousands of vehicles that are whizzing past you and their screaming horns. The roads are two ways and often two lanes each way even though in canada I think it might pass as a single lane in one direction. There is food and garbage on the streets for the cows to eat and there are many cows wandering around...also leaving cow pies to avoid in your travels. There are also many stray dogs rummaging through trash. We walked for about 4 or 5 hours through the market and seen many beautiful things to buy. We went to a temple as well which was interesting. We had to take our shoes off and walk barefoot (insert shudder here). Just seeing how many birds fly around and sit on the temple, the number or people coming and going, the mice, and all the rest of it, I am sure Eva and I looked at each other a few times before removing our shoes as if to say in our heads "are we really going to do this?" A local artist whose family runs the temple gave us a tour free of charge (although he did take us to his art studio afterwards to show us his craft...and then introduced us to a shop owner and a scarf shop) so I think he earns his commission somewhere down the line, but he was very nice to us and explained many things to us that we had no clue about. On our walk back through the shops we came across a cow (we had seen a few at this point and just avoided being too close), but this one was coming towards us and when I went to walk around it a car came very close so I got squished between them for a moment and was rather disturbing for me! Eva though (who had been joking earlier about not getting hit by a cows tail) got whacked by this same cows tale! LOL I guess it's better than getting stepped on by it (as that was also a close call).
So we survived the market and returned home to gather with the other wedding guests who had arrived and we had a lovely lunch at the hotel (mmm....chicken korma) followed by a short nap. We had plans to have Tia (the bride) take some of us dress shopping, so around 6:30 we headed out to a bazaar which is a larger market with more established boutique/shops and we were all able to find something. I ended up needing to have a dress custom made for me since my body type and size aren't common here (everyone is skinny as rakes) and Eva found a beautiful dress as well. We still need shoes, but it's amazing how in Edmonton we were looking at $300-500 CAD for an outfit plus alterations and here I am having one custom made for 4300 rupees (approx $85 CAD) including alterations and it will be ready the day after tomorrow!
We are setting out in the morning for a tour with the group so it will be another action packed day!
We certainly are enjoying ourselves and trying to embrace the culture and the surroundings! I am amazed at how many wonderful people we have met in the hotel and also that have come to be a part of the wedding celebrations and tour (there are people from all over the world and some very adventurous travellers).
Signing off now,
Mindy (aka. Miranda)
As a recap, we flew from Edmonton to Toronto and we were able to score first class tickets for this flight thanks to our buddy Colleen from work. We were delayed at take off due to mechanical problems by an hour and a half, but luckily we had a 4 hour layover in Toronto, so we ended up only having 2 hours to kill instead of 4. We were supposed to use the lounge passes we scored from work but they wouldn't work with our tickets since we switched airlines :( but Eva and I felt pretty cool being turned away when there was a lineup of "qualified" people behind us trying to sign in! LOL
Our flights were uneventful for the most part, but I always get a person in front of me that somehow manages to recline their chair farther than the normal limits. On our way from Toronto to Frankfurt, if that wasn't bad enough it was a tiny man and he was very bouncy in his chair which resulted in my water splashing around quite a bit. He also adjusted his head rest and pulled it all the way up (not sure why he would make it taller as he was short) and it flew off the chair and landed in my lap! Thankfully the flight from Frankfurt to Dehli went quickly! We had a longer nap which helped and I have introduce Eva to the game wheel of fortune on my iPad , so we had fun with that.
I think our layover in Dehli was the longest since there wasn't much open (we arrived at 1:00 AM). The real fun began when we got off the plane and had to go through security. They divided people with Indian passports and international passports. When we came down the escalator it hit us that we weren't in canada anymore...there were thousands of people lined up and it was complete chaos! We of course had to go to the international passport line which wasn't moving at all in the 30 mins we waited, so we were expecting it to take hours. All of a sudden the Indian passport lines were almost gone and they started pulling people from the backs of the lineups to move to the Indian passport side. We seriously felt like we had won the lottery! We were done at security in about 10 minutes. When we went to get our luggage I discovered that my suitcase pull handle got broken somewhere along the way so I can't pull it without being hunched over. Apparently I was whining too much on our crazy long walk from baggage claim to the domestic flight area(to fly to Udaipur) so Eva offered to pull my bag, so we swapped! The lady who issued our tickets was not friendly at all and Eva and I didn't even end up sitting together on that flight. Thank goodness it was only an hour and a half flight, which we both slept through.
We arrived in Udaipur on a small puddle jumper plane (like air canada jazz) where you board and De-board on the Tarmac. It was so cold we could see our breath! We ventured on to get a prepaid taxi to take us to our hotel. It was approximately 30 minutes and cost us 600 rupees ($12 CAD). Now this taxi ride was the beginning of our real journey! We drove by extremely poor living conditions and because it was 7:30 AM local time all the children were waiting to be taken to school. We quickly learned two very important lessons. If you hear a horn, move over or you will be run over. Also, Indian people are extremely agile drivers of cars, trucks and motorbikes. We were squeezing I between large trucks (not semi size but think garbage truck size) within inches and at approx 80-100 Kms per hour. We were dodging motorbikes with 3-4 people on each of them, tuktuks (motorized rickshaws) that are supposed to hold three people...crammed with upwards of 8 people. Kids (and I mean toddlers no bigger than 1-2 year olds) sitting on the drivers laps on a motorbike and holding on themselves as their parent is operating the motorbike. No helmets and no seat belts are to be found. The roads have very few rules, the main one is to avoid contact with other cars whether they are oncoming on the wrong side of the road or turning across unmarked intersections, as long as when someone honks at you, you move out of their way, everything seems to go smoothly. I am surprised there isn't more road rage or pile ups, but it seems to work! There were a few times I closed my eyes as it was too close for comfort, and it was best to look at the scenery than to watch the roads.
Once we arrived at our hotel we were relieved. Our room wasn't going to be ready for another hour or so, so we had breakfast at the hotel. Our room is okay, two single beds, the plumbing is interesting to say the least, we can't flush any toilet paper due to the plumbing. The hot water is heated by solar panels and the shower is just in the bathroom with a drain in the floor - no designated shower stall. Once we freshened up we decided to see who else had arrived from the wedding party. We were happy that the grooms brother Jason and his girlfriend Jen and his two kids (ages10&12) were also here, so we decided to go take a look at the local market.
We left our hotel on foot and discovered that the roads are narrow and there are very little sidewalks if any. There are some large concrete sidewalk blocks that cover the sewer that runs below, but some blocks are missing so you must be careful. Between the broken sidewalks and roads, you must avoid contact with the thousands of vehicles that are whizzing past you and their screaming horns. The roads are two ways and often two lanes each way even though in canada I think it might pass as a single lane in one direction. There is food and garbage on the streets for the cows to eat and there are many cows wandering around...also leaving cow pies to avoid in your travels. There are also many stray dogs rummaging through trash. We walked for about 4 or 5 hours through the market and seen many beautiful things to buy. We went to a temple as well which was interesting. We had to take our shoes off and walk barefoot (insert shudder here). Just seeing how many birds fly around and sit on the temple, the number or people coming and going, the mice, and all the rest of it, I am sure Eva and I looked at each other a few times before removing our shoes as if to say in our heads "are we really going to do this?" A local artist whose family runs the temple gave us a tour free of charge (although he did take us to his art studio afterwards to show us his craft...and then introduced us to a shop owner and a scarf shop) so I think he earns his commission somewhere down the line, but he was very nice to us and explained many things to us that we had no clue about. On our walk back through the shops we came across a cow (we had seen a few at this point and just avoided being too close), but this one was coming towards us and when I went to walk around it a car came very close so I got squished between them for a moment and was rather disturbing for me! Eva though (who had been joking earlier about not getting hit by a cows tail) got whacked by this same cows tale! LOL I guess it's better than getting stepped on by it (as that was also a close call).
So we survived the market and returned home to gather with the other wedding guests who had arrived and we had a lovely lunch at the hotel (mmm....chicken korma) followed by a short nap. We had plans to have Tia (the bride) take some of us dress shopping, so around 6:30 we headed out to a bazaar which is a larger market with more established boutique/shops and we were all able to find something. I ended up needing to have a dress custom made for me since my body type and size aren't common here (everyone is skinny as rakes) and Eva found a beautiful dress as well. We still need shoes, but it's amazing how in Edmonton we were looking at $300-500 CAD for an outfit plus alterations and here I am having one custom made for 4300 rupees (approx $85 CAD) including alterations and it will be ready the day after tomorrow!
We are setting out in the morning for a tour with the group so it will be another action packed day!
We certainly are enjoying ourselves and trying to embrace the culture and the surroundings! I am amazed at how many wonderful people we have met in the hotel and also that have come to be a part of the wedding celebrations and tour (there are people from all over the world and some very adventurous travellers).
Signing off now,
Mindy (aka. Miranda)
Oh geez that is so funny. I can totally see the two of you. Glad you are enjoying your adventure....be careful of monkeys! I am reading a book to my grade 11 class and its got an island thats rampant with monkeys and I immediately think of you.
ReplyDeleteWow Mindy... You are an excellent writer. Even though I am at the same place, I enjoyed reading it... Great going...
ReplyDelete