We were very upset as it was so unexpected. It was New Years Eve and
Betsy and Jay tried to lift our spirits with a bottle of whisky. The next day we
said goodbye to the Americans and headed to the deserted town of Fatipur Sikri
arriving at 3.30pm.and parking at the Archaeological bungalow for the night. We
spent the following day exploring this amazing city, we were on our own and
really enjoyed looking at the incredible screens carved out of red rock and
white marble. Our next stop was Jaipur where we visited The Palace of the winds,
and then to Janter Manter Observatory, which was built in the 18th century and
had large instruments, one a gnomon is 90ft high . which for accuracy is
difficult to beat even today. Our last stop was the Amber Palace which we
explored before returning to park at the tourist bungalow for the night.
Our travels carried us South West towards Ajanta, on the way we discovered Dak bungalows which allow travellers to park free in their compounds for the night, It was rather late when we arrived at Ajanta but we decided to explore some of the caves before we settled down for the night. They were amazing carved out of solid rock with enormous stone Buddha's carved inside them and in a lovely setting in a gorge. We explored the rest of the caves the next morning leaving the best one. With a huge reclining Buddha until last. A short drive took us to the car park at Ellora, where even better caves and carvings were all around us. One carving was a huge temple that had been cut into the rock and then had the cave roof removed so that it was a building made out of one piece of stone. These caves and carvings were one of the best things we saw in India, the Buddha's were really big and there were statues of big breasted women which were mentioned in the guide book.
We continued driving south through jungle-like terrain to Goa, an old Portugese colony where we joined several other vans parked on a beach at Baga. Sarah loved it, the beach was lovely and she spent most of her days in the water. Local people came around each day selling lovely fresh bread and honey in bottles, we took several side trips on the bus to local markets , but used most of our time to relax after our long drive and recharge ourselves for the journey to come. Dave has been whiling away time by building sand sculptures on the beach, the local people were all very impressed with his one of Ganesh, the elephant god. After two weeks holiday we drove down the coast to Colva beach for a day, the sand was really white and fine and there were not so many people.
Then we headed to Jog falls and our route took us to a ferry across the river where we were loaded on to a raft and towed behind the passenger boat, it was very hairy, we continued on our way and arrived at the waterfall at dusk and parked at the youth hostel for the night. After exploring the falls the next day we continued our journey heading for Belur, but the van broke down, and Dave found that the half shaft had broken. We got a tow from a lorry to the Belur travellers bungalow and one of the workers there brought someone to see us who can repair the shaft. It took a few hours but he did a good job and in the evening we walked across the road to visit a fairground which had set up during the day.
Our next stop was at Sravanabelgola where there is an enormous statue of the sage Gomatswara, which you have to climb 500steps up a hill to reach. It is one of the largest statues outside Egypt. We were exhausted at the end of the day.
We headed south again and stopped for lunch at Sringarpatnam, where we explored the Summer Palace, which was once the home of The Duke of Wellington, before heading to Mysore and viewing the Big statue of a Black Bull. Our next stop was at a wildlife sanctuary called Mudumali. And as we drove in there was a sign saying that wild animal have right of way. In the morning we arranged to go through the park on an elephant. It was great and a fine vantage point for seeing the animals, at one time we saw a wild elephant but the Mahout got us away quickly as they can be dangerous. Sarah slept throughout the 2 hour ride and when we dismounted we took her to see the baby elephants at the elephant camp. She really enjoyed it, as we went back to the campsite a monkey came into the van and pinched some peanut brittle that we had bought earlier for Sarah. She was not amused. As we drove out of the park the next day, we stopped at the side of the road to take a photo of the van underneath some tall bamboo, I looked over at Dave as he was taking the photo and saw a wild elephant in the wood behind him, he took a photo of it as we all climbed back into the van. It seemed curious about us and started running through the jungle towards the van. As we drove off it came onto the road and started to chase us. Rounding a corner we stopped a vehicle travelling towards the elephant and they jumped into our van and told us to drive away quickly. Their car was in the middle of the road and the elephant sniffed it and slowly headed back to the jungle. The driver told us that there had been trouble in the past with elephants attacking cars. We continued on our way to Ootacamund, a hill station, and drove through some lovely scenery to the tourist bungalow for the night. As we drove down off the mountains the scenery was spectacular and we continued South to Cochin, when we arrived the streets were crowded and we stopped to ask why at a garage. Mrs Ghandi is giving a speech this evening and when we enquired at the tourist office we were told that it was to be in English and we were welcome to go. It was in a type of fairground and there were 7 decorated elephants with trumpeters astride of them, and a band made up of lots of different instruments. We were all put in to roped off enclosures to listen to the speech and it was very interesting. We drove along the coast and finally reached Cape Cormorant, the southernmost tip of India, and arrived just in time to see a beautiful sunset.
( NEXT )
Become concerned with complexity and you will lose sight of simplicity.
..
Our travels carried us South West towards Ajanta, on the way we discovered Dak bungalows which allow travellers to park free in their compounds for the night, It was rather late when we arrived at Ajanta but we decided to explore some of the caves before we settled down for the night. They were amazing carved out of solid rock with enormous stone Buddha's carved inside them and in a lovely setting in a gorge. We explored the rest of the caves the next morning leaving the best one. With a huge reclining Buddha until last. A short drive took us to the car park at Ellora, where even better caves and carvings were all around us. One carving was a huge temple that had been cut into the rock and then had the cave roof removed so that it was a building made out of one piece of stone. These caves and carvings were one of the best things we saw in India, the Buddha's were really big and there were statues of big breasted women which were mentioned in the guide book.
We continued driving south through jungle-like terrain to Goa, an old Portugese colony where we joined several other vans parked on a beach at Baga. Sarah loved it, the beach was lovely and she spent most of her days in the water. Local people came around each day selling lovely fresh bread and honey in bottles, we took several side trips on the bus to local markets , but used most of our time to relax after our long drive and recharge ourselves for the journey to come. Dave has been whiling away time by building sand sculptures on the beach, the local people were all very impressed with his one of Ganesh, the elephant god. After two weeks holiday we drove down the coast to Colva beach for a day, the sand was really white and fine and there were not so many people.
Then we headed to Jog falls and our route took us to a ferry across the river where we were loaded on to a raft and towed behind the passenger boat, it was very hairy, we continued on our way and arrived at the waterfall at dusk and parked at the youth hostel for the night. After exploring the falls the next day we continued our journey heading for Belur, but the van broke down, and Dave found that the half shaft had broken. We got a tow from a lorry to the Belur travellers bungalow and one of the workers there brought someone to see us who can repair the shaft. It took a few hours but he did a good job and in the evening we walked across the road to visit a fairground which had set up during the day.
Our next stop was at Sravanabelgola where there is an enormous statue of the sage Gomatswara, which you have to climb 500steps up a hill to reach. It is one of the largest statues outside Egypt. We were exhausted at the end of the day.
We headed south again and stopped for lunch at Sringarpatnam, where we explored the Summer Palace, which was once the home of The Duke of Wellington, before heading to Mysore and viewing the Big statue of a Black Bull. Our next stop was at a wildlife sanctuary called Mudumali. And as we drove in there was a sign saying that wild animal have right of way. In the morning we arranged to go through the park on an elephant. It was great and a fine vantage point for seeing the animals, at one time we saw a wild elephant but the Mahout got us away quickly as they can be dangerous. Sarah slept throughout the 2 hour ride and when we dismounted we took her to see the baby elephants at the elephant camp. She really enjoyed it, as we went back to the campsite a monkey came into the van and pinched some peanut brittle that we had bought earlier for Sarah. She was not amused. As we drove out of the park the next day, we stopped at the side of the road to take a photo of the van underneath some tall bamboo, I looked over at Dave as he was taking the photo and saw a wild elephant in the wood behind him, he took a photo of it as we all climbed back into the van. It seemed curious about us and started running through the jungle towards the van. As we drove off it came onto the road and started to chase us. Rounding a corner we stopped a vehicle travelling towards the elephant and they jumped into our van and told us to drive away quickly. Their car was in the middle of the road and the elephant sniffed it and slowly headed back to the jungle. The driver told us that there had been trouble in the past with elephants attacking cars. We continued on our way to Ootacamund, a hill station, and drove through some lovely scenery to the tourist bungalow for the night. As we drove down off the mountains the scenery was spectacular and we continued South to Cochin, when we arrived the streets were crowded and we stopped to ask why at a garage. Mrs Ghandi is giving a speech this evening and when we enquired at the tourist office we were told that it was to be in English and we were welcome to go. It was in a type of fairground and there were 7 decorated elephants with trumpeters astride of them, and a band made up of lots of different instruments. We were all put in to roped off enclosures to listen to the speech and it was very interesting. We drove along the coast and finally reached Cape Cormorant, the southernmost tip of India, and arrived just in time to see a beautiful sunset.
( NEXT )Become concerned with complexity and you will lose sight of simplicity.
..
Page Three
