After the remoteness of the Spiti valley we were quite happy to be back in a larger town. More food choices to keep the kids happy, Pizza and pasta now on offer plus internet availability for updating the blog and organising our onward travels.
Leaving Manali we were back in the jeep for a 7 hour ride to Macleod Ganj, just north of Dharamasala. Macleod Ganj is a former British hill station left virtually deserted when the British left India and deemed an ideal place for the exiled Dalai Lama to set up home, along with thousands of other Tibetan refugees. The town is now mainly Tibetan and an interesting change from the Indian towns and villages we have seen. Unfortunately we were only scheduled to stay for one night, on advice from our driver, I think he didn’t feel comfortable there so we moved on the next day to Dalhousie.
A bunch of monks going our way
Dalhousie itself was a bit disappointing, again another former British hill station with three English churches, but hey, we can see English churches in England! Not much to do here but an hour or so drive from here we visited Khajjiar or ‘little Switzerland’ as they call it here. A bit of an exaggeration but nevertheless was a beautiful area of green open plain surrounded by mountains and pine forest.
Beautiful Pine forests in Kajiar
The open space at Kajiar
Onward from here we left our driver and took the morning bus to Amritsar. This was a typical Indian bus journey with hard seats, no aircon, crammed full of people, horns blaring almost non-stop for 6 or 7 hours. We arrived exhausted in a very busy, dirty and polluted city much much worse than Delhi, with laughably chaotic traffic. The only real reason for our visit here was the Golden Temple which we had been told is a definite must see.
And we did the Golden Temple and Steve had to wear a silly head scarf as bear heads not allowed.
The Golden Temple is a Sikh temple where everyone is welcome and should be treated as equal, you can stay there and there is free food constantly available. We passed on the room but thought we ought to try the food. Apparrently they feed 30,000 people every day.
And we did the Golden Temple and Steve had to wear a silly head scarf as bear heads not allowed.
The Golden Temple is a Sikh temple where everyone is welcome and should be treated as equal, you can stay there and there is free food constantly available. We passed on the room but thought we ought to try the food. Apparrently they feed 30,000 people every day.
Some bread with you Sari sir
Head coverings at the Golden Temple
Sarah sporting her new Indian outfit
The lunch rush at the Golden Temple
We left as soon as we could, by train back to Delhi.
This was our first trip by train in the standard 2nd class seats, which was all that was available, and was surprisingly a pretty good trip and good value at about £6 for all of us for an 8 hour train ride.
Veg just like home
The red Fort in Delhi
Back in Delhi and a nice hotel – towels, soap and toilet paper provided no less!, and we did the Red Fort and picked up our lovely parcel of goodies from Angela, including an essential Indian Lonely Planet guide due to broken Kindle and even more essential book to read for Steve.
Next stop Agra and the Taj.
On the 24th October we left Delhi by train, another 2nd class train trip packed with Indian travellers, we arrived in Agra some 5 hours later. The Taj Mahal was very spectacular and would agree is one of the most beautiful buildings, even the kids quite enjoyed it.
Entrance to the Taj
The Taj Mahal, met all expectations
and again
Leaving Agra by train on the evening of the 26th we arrived in Jaipur at 2am very tired after our train was delayed by 4 hours. Finally Sarah and I lost our patience with the Auto Rickshaw touts at the Jaipur station. For those haven’t experienced it this is a constant annoyance in India, they see foreign tourists and just won’t take NO for an answer, one doesn’t want to be rude but in the end you have to say ’get lost’. Luckily we had pre booked a lovely guest house and we arrived and we were well looked after and fell into bed.
The first morning in Jaipur I donned my head phones and took a stroll in peace!
Jaipur, the ‘Pink City’, well a very faded pink and not as nice as we expected, the highlight here was the Amber Fort just outside the city and for the kids (and Steve) and elephant ride. We had also arrived at the final few days of the Indian festival ‘Diwali’ which is a bit like our Christmas and Guy Fawkes night rolled into one. 48 hours of constant fireworks going off, sometimes felt like we were in a war zone, but the pretty lights adorning most buildings and the main streets made up for what would have been a fairly drab looking city.
We were unable to get a train from Jaipur to Udaipur, our next stop in Rajastan so it was to be a night bus to arrive early morning.
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