Incredible India - The Numbers

4 m0nths

15 states

3 major cities

15.000 cows - 3 dead

5000 monkeys

10.000 dogs - 4 dead

40 dead human bodies being burnt

128 fellow travellers - no dead

2 elephants

100 camels

1700 water buffalo's

38 hotel rooms

1 night in desert

23 befriended Indian children

1 plane

4 busses

2 boats

14 night trains

3 taxi cars

2 royal enfield bikes - both dead now

150 riksha's

150 curry's

3 glasses of good wine

a lot of Kingfisher beer

3 x ill Ellen

2 x ill Duncan

3 boobgrabs

1 Bollywood music video

1 potential movie

1x Duncan punched me

5 traffic accidents seen

lowest altitude sealevel

highest altitude 4500 meters

Duncan money spent: not as much as you think

Ellen money spent: Shit load more than you think

Kids sleeping on the street: Manymanymany

1x scammed seriously

? x semi-scammed - I think

25 x nearly seriously scammed

9 x invited into local houses

6 days of rain

114 days of sunshine

25 temples visited

100.000 temples seen

3.5 million Gods

2 days of hating India

118 days of loving India

Too many shits to count..!

Yeah, we're tired now....

What an unforgettable experience!

Lots of love from Incredible cold England,

Duncan and Ellen

All good things must come to an end...

It's been a while since my last blog entry but I will try and make it up to date again. After Jaisalmer we took the bus to the "blue city" Johdpur. Again an amazing place with an amazing fort and palace. The town itself is great, real India. Marketplace after marketplace where all the women dress in beautiful coloured sari's. Spices, insence, chillies, clothes, fruit, veg, peanuts. You name it, you can buy it.

We stayed there for 4 days and then it was time to carry on again. To Udaipur this time. This is supposed to be the most romantic city in Rajasthan. Not so romantic when you're seriously ill and bound to bed for a week coughing your lungs out...

It is the town where the James Bond movie Octopussy was filmed. Consequently every guesthouse shows the movie everynight.. Our guesthouse has view of the river. Lovely but unfortunately it is half dried up.. In the lake is the floating palace, very expensive hotel... The town is surrounded by hils and filled with tourist shops. We were both feeling very burnt-out though. India is a hard country to travel for 4 months. So we decided to chill out here untill it is time to go to Mumbai and fly home. Both Duncan and I feel very at home now, we've spent 2 weeks here and got to know the neigbourhood and the community quite well.

We met the family making statues on the bridge and love the daughter who we buy a coke everyday. Sonya, she's lovely.

The couple that runs the cornershop next door befriended us and we got invited to their son's second birthday party. Parth. What an experience.. We thought it was just going to be us and the family. It was, but all 100 family members were there. Duncan and I being the only whiteys there. You know some birthday parties they hire a clown? It felt a little as they hired a couple of whiteys, we were the attraction of the party. Amazing food, amazing hospitality, but very tireing because everyone wants to talk to you end invite you to their house for the next day.

Little birthday boy was very happy birthday boy. He ran around in his little white Elvis outfit, peacock feather in his hair, make-up on, looking just too cute. And the hole family sang: "happy birthday to you, many girlfriends for you!"

We got straight in to the I LOVE INDIA feeling again, and we are both very very sad that it really is comming to an end now. At the moment I am with the family again. The mother (my age) is teaching me to cook! Very hospitable..!

With lots of love from Incredible India,

Duncan and Ellen

Jaisalmer with all it's wonders and camels

Here we are, in beautiful picture postcard Rajastan, in the middle of the desert, Jaisalmer. In the evening sun, free wifi because we befriended the owner of the hotel, the famous Jaisalmer fort on the background. Lovely cold Kingfisher on the table, all my shopping purchases of the day in a big bag next to me.

The fort is an amazing place, as they say in the lonely planet, the biggest sand castle on earth, and it is indeed.

It is like stepping back to the middle ages with all it's smells (not all lovely, but it's India) and colours and market shops.

We've got a lovely hotel just outside the fort and through there we booked an overnight camelsafari beacause the lonely planet told us to do so..! There was a Dutch guy in our group, Eelco, a German, Helmut, and Rob, one of our christmas orphans who we met up with again! Early morning we left with a jeep that dropped us off at a Jain temple first, then we went to the Thar desert. India shares this desert with Pakistan. The camels arrived, they are amazing animals. I have never seen Duncan this nervous..! He was bound to Mr India for 2 days, he had an uncomfortable saddle and I had a nasty bitch called Goddik. She had her own will and a small baby. After an hour ride through the desert we were glad it was lunchtime, Dunc had a broken ass as the indian guide said it, and I already had sore thighs. Sandy chapati's taste strangely good when you're in the desert..! After lunch we went off again, duncan walking next to his camel because of his brokes ass, and we went to our overnight spot. The absance of Indian noise and garbage was a very welcome change. After a walk over the sandy dunes while the sun went down, we had another lovely veg curry with sandy chappati's and built a massive campfire. The group dynamic was very nice. Lovely chats and lots of jokes around the fire and the stars. Our guide sang a few Indian marriage songs for us, while playing the Tablas (Indian drum) on the metal cooking pans and he insisted we sang a song aswell, so there I was singing "als ik boven op de dom sta" from the top of my lungs, and Johnny and the kid (our guides) laughed and laughed and played the tablas..! We slept underneath the millions of stars and the milky way that night. It was amazing(ly cold...) The next morning we woke up very early, Johnny and the kid were already making breakfast and we headed off again on mr India, Goddik and the 3 other camels. We stopped at the village of our guides where both Dunc and I had the most amazing(ly bad) nailpolish job of our life and they tried to overcharge us massively for a cup of chai. Tourism at work. Little did they know 4 out of our 5 man group was travelling for more than 3 months... So they weren't very lucky today..!

We had again an amazing lunch underneath a tree. Then all of a sudden Johhny and the kid shouted "DESERT MARRIAGE..!". I looked back, jumped up and shouted: " Oh no, my camel is being raped..!" There was Goddik with a strange camel on top of her, squeeling. Her baby screaming because her mother was being raped, I told you she was a dirty b*-ch..! That was a sentance I never thought I would say..!

Well then, after an hour on the back of our camel-friends, we had a freightning journey back to Jaiselmer in the back of a jeep. What an adventure again..

Tomorrow we're leaving for Johdpur, the blue city. Excited to see what that'll bring..!

Time is pushing now, we've only got 3 weeks left before flying back to the uk. Well, at least I've got all my souvenirs sorted now, I bought you a great one today papa..!

Again, Lots of love from Incredible India,

Dunc and Ellen

New year Agra and colourful Rajastan

We arrived after dark in Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. The hotel that we had booked, so it said in the lonely planet, has the best rooftop-views of the Taj Mahal. Very excited we logged our backpacks to our room and rushed to the roof to see one of the 7 world wonders. But unfortunately it wasn't lit up, we only saw a vague silhouette. The biggest surprise was in the morning.

What an amazingly beautiful building it is.. As with any landmarks you've seen hundreds of pictures of it, but here it is, right in front of you!

The next morning we woke up very early (with a slight hangover thanks to a bunch of Irish lads) and we entered the gates of the Taj Mahal at 7 am, when it was still quiet. It was surrounded by mist, magical. The building changed from white to pink as the sun came up. Walking around you get mezmorised by all the amazing detail of the inlay of the (semi-) precious stones. And not just a little patch but the whole Taj is covered in them.

We walked around for 2 hours and left just as the touristbusses arrived and the Taj was swamped.

That night was new-years eve. Our hotel staff had been prepairing the party the whole day; putting tinsel up, a disco light, lovely indian buffet, etc.

We had a very international party. Dutch, Enlish, Irish, German, Australian, Canadian, Lebonese, Romanian and ofcourse Indian. It was lots of fun. Unfortunately the only cd they had was the Venga Boys so we were rocking out on "I'm a barbie girl" the whole night.
So we were at the Taj Mahal, full moon AND Lunar eclipse for our new year!

Our train was supposed to leave new-years night at 4.45 in the morning so we partied untill 3, packed our bags and took a riksha to the station. Only to find out our train was delayed. and even more delayed, and more... There we were, tired, tipsy, thirsty.. Our train ended up leaving at 9.30 in the morning. We were glad to be able to sleep in the train.

From Kota to Bundi we had to take an other riksha for about an hour. Driver was a nutter, riksha broke down, had to get in another one, then he hit a bump at full speed and I hit my head quite severe on the roof, big bump and bruise..

But what a nice town Bundi (Rajastan) is. It is a bit off the main tourist track so not as busy. The colours are amazing. Our very expensive hotel (800 rupies = 14 euro's) has an amazing view of a beautiful palace and all the blue rooftops of the town.

The palace is quite fallen-down but it has amazing views and wall-paintings (see pictures). All the painting-rooms are also filled with small mirrors and gold-leaf.


The town itself is lovely. It is a walled town and a shopping walhalla for me. I will have to buy a new suitecase for all my purchases. And all so cheap, camel leather shoes for 3 euro's, shawls for 2 euro's etc... LOVELY..!

So we've almost done 3/4 of our trip. All we have to look forward to is the rest of Rajastan which is picture-postcard India.

I must say we're both very tired, India is an intense country to travel with all its people, traffic, cows, and new impressions every day (still after 3 months..)
The continuous stream of "Come see my shop, what's your good name?" There is ALWAYS something happening.
But we're still loving every minute of it. Europe will seem so boring when we come back..



Happy new year from Incredible India,
Duncan and Ellen