3 Reasons why ....

3 reasons why El Crumbo and Bo Bemma might regret letting me come to Oostland.

1. I can fart on their Pillows

2. I can eat all of their chocolate

3. I can teach Nemo to breakdance

Day 3 of Pinko in India

Day 3 saw us getting up at the butt crack of dawn to head to the train station.  5am is very quiet in Delhi, barely anyone around until you get to the train station where it was rather busy!

We had a 2 hour train ride to Agra, we were in one of the fancier class of trains that included breakfast and snacks for our journey.  I accepted the food more so I could have a squiz at what was on the tray, but didn’t eat any of it.  Curry samosas is not really all that ideal at 6.30 in the morning!  As we chugged along the sun started to rise making for a very pretty viewing for those with window seats.  I myself was one of the lucky few. 

Apart from the pretty sunrise one also got to see many a person coping a squat on the side of the tracks.  Nothing says good morning like a royal bum salute.

We arrive in Agra to chaos.  The train station is full of touts who wants to carry your bag for you for money.  After the 10^th time of firmly saying NO all you want to do is put your pack on your front and charge at them like a bowling ball and knock them all to the ground.

We make it to the bus and head off to our first destination.  It is 8.30 am and already its hot enough to sweat up a storm.  Our first stop is the Red Fort.  Standing out the front of the Red Fort you can see to your right not too far off in the distance the Taj.  Ooooo exciting!!

The Red Fort was the residence of the King who built the Taj, it also towards the end of his life become his prison.  The Red Fort is amazing.  The architecture and detailing of the time is just amazing.  We have a lovely little old man as our guide and he is very knowledgeable, its not just a job for him but something he finds great passion in.  I love the Red Fort, not only do I blend right into the walls because im wearing a pink top and my face is bright pink, but because it is just magnificent.  The size of it and the detailing is just beautiful.

Pinko - (Redo!) blending in at the Red Fort!

After our tour we head to our hotel to unpack and freshen up before lunch.  After lunch we stopped off at a local carpet manufacturer and wholesaler.  It is a government supported business, the government has given of 3000 carpet looms to families and communities around India, this in turn gives work to women in and around their homes.  Without the looms they would either have no source of income or would have to travel really far to work leaving their families alone at home.  The carpets are all hand made and are all just stunning to see and touch.  Mum along with two others in our group buy carpets/rugs.  The one mum buys is beautiful!

After the rug place we head out to the Taj.  Our ticket price includes free shoe covers and a bottle of water.  The shoe covers are rather funny, all the locals have to remove their shoes and leave them outside the Taj, I guess too many tourists were having their shoes stolen!  Tourists do pay 10 to 20 times more than the local person, so in turn there is always the local Indian line and then a separate line for the tourists to just walk on in.  In some ways this is a little unfair, but then in terms of price and what we pay it is a little fare not to have to wait in the hot sun in a line.

The Taj is just beautiful.  It is really impressive to stand in front of.  I was rather amused at all the locals standing and holding their hands up for photos so it looked like they were holding it.  We arrived at the Taj around 4pm so we could stay and see the sunset there, unfortunately it was also the hottest time of the day to be there, and on a 43 degree day I really noticed the heat!  We make it all the way up and inside to see the tombs, im standing there in front of them with sweat pouring from my body.  I have never felt so hot and sweaty in my life, the air is so thick and hot its hard to breath inside it.  We make our exit and find a nice spot to sit on one of the ledges in the shade and cool down while enjoying the display of beautiful saris stream past us. 

1 out of every 3 people that walked past us stopped to take my photo.  It was rather amusing, they would take my photo and then I would take their photo.  I have never had my photo taken so often by so many different people! 

After the Taj we head back to our hotel to freshen up.  I had never looked forward to a cold shower more in all of my life!

Dinner was at an out door restaurant, unfortunately in my mind focusing on the cold shower I did not listen to the outdoor part of our dinner and wore a skirt, thus resulting in being attacked by mosquitoes for the entire evening.  I have no idea how I managed to leave that night with any blood left in my body!

Dinner was lovely, nice atmosphere.  There was Indian music playing, dancers, a magic show (Yes! A magic show!) a palm reader and a henna painter.  I was up and ready to go for the palm reader.  He was lovely, over charged me to which my leader was angry at and went to get my money back, but he was interesting.  Apparently I will get married at 33, my husband will be under the thumb, I will have 2 children, 1 girl who will be very smart, and 1 boy who will be not so smart. I was the only one in our group who was told that would have a dumbass son.  We all had fun with a competition to see who would live the longest.  I came in 4^th at 86.

After my palm reading I very excitedly had some henna painting done.  I have wanted this done for so long!  I had two, one on my hand and one of my foot and leg.  Its kinda tickly to get done, and it goes on all puff paint like, you let it dry for an hour or two and then pick it off leaving the pattern underneath.  The picking off part was fun!

Despite the heat .. Pinko loves India

Pinko Indian Style Day 2

Day 2 in the land of heat and curry!

Today was the first day of our tour, however we did not meet up with the group until midday so Mum and I headed out of the hotel in search of a TukTuk to take us to connaught place and maybe do a little bit of sight seeing and some shopping for the morning.

Yesterday being a public holiday the streets where a little quieter, but this morning we got to experience Delhi traffic as we zoomed around in the back of a tuk tuk. 

I am so used to Asian traffic conditions and it doesn’t phase me, but it still does amuse me that you can zig zag in and out of any situation.

We get to our destination only to discover that we are a little too early and the shops have not opened yet!  I was feeling a little unwell all of a sudden and wasn’t sure if I wanted to sit or stand or walk or throwup.  I grabbed a bottle of water and started drinking as we walked around doing some window shopping.  There was not much to do, yet I was not feeling well enough to get back into a tuktuk.  We find a store that was opening and rushed inside as it was air-conditioned, I make mum try on some clothes in an attempt to stay in the store longer so I could try and feel a little better, it wasn’t too bad as Mum found a nice top to wear so she bought it.  We decide to cut our outing short and head back to the hotel so I can have a laydown and try and feel well before the group meeting.

We meet our group, all Aussies and English peoples.  Nice enough, although, 1 couple are on their honeymoon, 2 men are seasoned travellers – aka know it alls, 1 girl has turned up bright orange from her fake tan and 2 are primary school PE teachers who after the first 30 minutes have discovered they don’t know how to shut up or say anything intelligent… for example, wow its well hot here, hotter than England (duhhhhhh thanks for that captain obvious I had no idea)

Our guide whose name is Kuldep, pronounced CoolDeep, not deepcool, not coolcan, not coddeep and any other variations the two teachers called him, gathered us all together and we set off to go on a walking tour of Delhi.  We hopped aboard the train and set off.  Wow that train was packed, we had to change after 3 stations to a different train to get to our destination, thankfully we had some guy in our group who was a giant and thankfully standing next to our guide so we were able to see when to get off by following the giant towering above all the local indians!

Our first destination was the Jama Masjid, Delhis oldest mosque.  After walking through the streets in the heat I was happy to get to our destination until I realised that we were standing at the bottom of many many many steps that were going up to the mosque and it occurred to me that this will be the many of giant staircases that I am going to have to endure through this trip.  Dammit!

I lumbar up the giant steps and stand at the top trying not to huff and puff too much.  We leave our shoes in a group with some local who charges you to look after them, pay a dollar and don’t loose your shoes so you don’t have to walk back to the hotel in bare feet stepping in pee and poo and who knows what other substances … id pay more than a dollar for that!  As it was a mosque we had to be fully covered to enter, basically shoulders and arms, legs covered.  They had some dress/cloak things for us all to wear.  They were kinda hideous and amusing, and what was even better was that I was too big to wear it properly, well .. if I put it on properly I could put my arms down or breath, so they tied it around me cape style.  That’s right, I was a superhero.

Notice the bright red face ... well that aint sunburn my friend thats called its 40 degrees and I climbed a bunch of stairs to end up wearing a cape.  Shiny face you saw?  thats just a constant flow of sweat!

After the mosque we headed to a Sikh temple to learn about the Sikh religion.  This was really interesting, im a big people watcher so I loved sitting down in the temple watching all the peoples.  To go in you have to remove your shoes and socks, then you walk through this little section of flowing water to wash your feet and then you go wash your hands before entering .. see you wash your feet but not dry them … and then you walk down marble steps.  Yep I slipped, not enough to fall but more than enough to let out a loud yelp and giggle to turn around and see 3 others in my group do exactly the same thing.  The Sikh religion are the Men who wear the big turbans on their head and have long beards.  As a part of their beliefs they don’t cut any of their hair.  Its always fascinated me why people have different sized turbans, its simply to do with how much hair they have.  The more hair and the longer the hair then the bigger the turban is there is more to wrap around. 

After our exciting afternoon tour we braved the train system once more and headed back to our hotel for a little rest before meeting to go to dinner.  Dinner was at a yummmmmmy place called crossroads.  I ordered another potato dish, it was potato and cumin seeds, it was super yummy but it was a little spicy for me, but I ate it all and just let my lips go all numb and tingly from the heat!

Pinko Abroad Day 1

Day 1 in India, or more amusingly known as neck licker land. So far so good - my neck has not been assaulted. To start with, let's give a big shout out to Rama! Happy Birthday Dude! Party like its 1999. It was a very long flight here, we left Aus late so landed with enough time to go pee and transfers terminals for our next flight. I hate not having a break in between! I did not sleep on the first leg so the 2nd flight I was stuffed and went right to sleep. I woke about 1.5 into it feeling really really unwell. There was a lot of turbulence and I could feel the vomit volcano rumbling down under. I took a few more travel tablets exceeding the 24 hour limit by about 7 now, problem was I had nothing to drink them with so swallowed them dry. Bad move, I ended up chocking and gagging mid flight and had to suffer the foul taste of tablets until we landed, but at least they did their job wedged there in. My throat and I went back to sleep hoping I did not anger the vomit volcano gods any further. After a few good hours catchup sleep in our hotel mum and I got up and went for a walk to see what's around. We went into a sari shop and bought some cotton Sarai's. 2 for Jane for the girls to use as sheets and 2 for me. Really pretty and really cheap! We kept walking and found an awesome bakery where I bought some cheese puff twists that also double as an awesome mustache, and diet coke! Yes! Diet coke! I was so happy!

We were feeling lazy and not wanting to think of what we should do so we had our hotel organize for a driver to take us around Deli. I think after all my trips to other Asian countries I have now become us to the chaotic driving. I mean it. Ames no sense as there are no real road rules and the horn is constantly used and you fit through spaces without hitting anyone. My first trip I used to look like this when I was in taxis etc

We visited India Gate, president house, a few temples, some tombs. You know ... The shiz.

Interesting pinko observations: Bromance is alive and kicking in India. Indian men walk around holding hands, hug each other, touch each other etc all in a non gay way. Go the Indian bromance! Tourists don't have to stand in lines and are treated really well. Every place we visited today the security would usher us out of the lines to buy our tickets first and also to get into the temples. I guess we are paying a higher entry fee and therefor why should we have to wait. They are still fascinated by westerners. I got asked to stand with some men in a photo today at one of the temples. I was a good sort and said yes. I think it's because I'm a bit of a fatso and they are fascinated with it. But then the amount of women I have seen with huge rolls of fat hanging out of their sari ... Deli is really clean and a nice city to be in.