Sunday 10 November
One last look at the river before we left...
... then off we went!
We were supposed to take a public bus for the next part of our trip but as we had spent so long being jolted and bumped on our previous journeys we decided to pay for a private minibus/jeep!
The roads were very bad and the journey took about three and a half hours but would have been much worse and much longer on public buses - so it was 500 rupees well spent!
We arrived at a small village called Chanderi - they hardly have any tourists apart from the Intrepid trips once every fortnight or so - so the children are thrilled to bits with the pale strangers and follow everyone around like film stars!
We went out for a meal with another local family (again in the dark with a power cut!) and he had written our names on cards in Urdu and Arabic and put them on the table. We had to try and guess our names - and I did! Gr M got his too and he says that he knew what it said - I didn't - I just guessed and sat down in the right place!
We then had some more henna tattoos done by one of the relatives - a lady who is quite famous for her tattoo work - it was lovely and much better than that done by the children - but we had lots of fun with both!
On the way back we went through lots of winding alleys and Lorraine, Noel and I got separated from the rest of the group when she decided to stop at a little kiosk to buy chocolate. She bought her chocolate (20 rupees for 4 tiny bars) - and then we didn't know which way to go and took the wrong turn!
Badam eventually rescued us and we went back. Lorraine later told us that the chocolate was rubbish and not worth stopping for!
Monday 11 November
At 6am Gr M joined a small group to go and look at some cave paintings. I stayed in bed! He said that they were very interesting but I was happy just to look at the pictures afterwards as I was starting with a cold - which had done the rounds in the group!
We then packed our bags for more bumpy roads in small jeeps for an hour's journey to the train station. Lorraine and I ended up sitting in the back but sideways on to each other. We did nothing but laugh!
As we were bored we then spent time taking photos of each other across the jeep.
We were nearly crying with laughing as we bounced up and down on the seats - it was definitely silly granny time at the back!
Ooh - Debs is giving us a look there - don't know what we'd done (yes I do!)
We bounced up and down and all over the place. At least I could wedge myself in but Lorraine is shorter so she kept shooting up off her seat!
She would start talking, get thrown into the air so stop talking and then just start again once she had landed - as though nothing had happened! Very funny - well we thought so...
On our travels we had seen lots of animals with their horns painted or with splodges of colour on their bodies - this had been done at Divali as a blessing for the animals - many of our group kept a spotty animal watch and there was lots of oohing and aahing each time we saw a cute goat or colourful cow! I've put some of them in the 'Temples' post.
Then our next long journey - six hours on the train to get to Agra. As my cold was coming along nicely I climbed up onto the top bunk (not easy!) and stayed there until we got to the station.
The hotel in Agra was lovely - our best one this trip - the Pushp Palace.
It had a revolving restaurant upstairs so we had a meal there. It only moved very slowly but we didn't like it - it was like eating on a revolving fairground ride - so Kirsty asked if it could be stopped.
They obligingly stopped it!
The Taj Mahal was somewhere in the distance and we could only see a very vague outline but we were all very excited about seeing it properly!
One last look at the river before we left...
... then off we went!
We were supposed to take a public bus for the next part of our trip but as we had spent so long being jolted and bumped on our previous journeys we decided to pay for a private minibus/jeep!
The roads were very bad and the journey took about three and a half hours but would have been much worse and much longer on public buses - so it was 500 rupees well spent!
We arrived at a small village called Chanderi - they hardly have any tourists apart from the Intrepid trips once every fortnight or so - so the children are thrilled to bits with the pale strangers and follow everyone around like film stars!
We went out for a meal with another local family (again in the dark with a power cut!) and he had written our names on cards in Urdu and Arabic and put them on the table. We had to try and guess our names - and I did! Gr M got his too and he says that he knew what it said - I didn't - I just guessed and sat down in the right place!
We then had some more henna tattoos done by one of the relatives - a lady who is quite famous for her tattoo work - it was lovely and much better than that done by the children - but we had lots of fun with both!
On the way back we went through lots of winding alleys and Lorraine, Noel and I got separated from the rest of the group when she decided to stop at a little kiosk to buy chocolate. She bought her chocolate (20 rupees for 4 tiny bars) - and then we didn't know which way to go and took the wrong turn!
Badam eventually rescued us and we went back. Lorraine later told us that the chocolate was rubbish and not worth stopping for!
Monday 11 November
At 6am Gr M joined a small group to go and look at some cave paintings. I stayed in bed! He said that they were very interesting but I was happy just to look at the pictures afterwards as I was starting with a cold - which had done the rounds in the group!
We then packed our bags for more bumpy roads in small jeeps for an hour's journey to the train station. Lorraine and I ended up sitting in the back but sideways on to each other. We did nothing but laugh!
As we were bored we then spent time taking photos of each other across the jeep. We were nearly crying with laughing as we bounced up and down on the seats - it was definitely silly granny time at the back!
Ooh - Debs is giving us a look there - don't know what we'd done (yes I do!)
We bounced up and down and all over the place. At least I could wedge myself in but Lorraine is shorter so she kept shooting up off her seat!
She would start talking, get thrown into the air so stop talking and then just start again once she had landed - as though nothing had happened! Very funny - well we thought so...
On our travels we had seen lots of animals with their horns painted or with splodges of colour on their bodies - this had been done at Divali as a blessing for the animals - many of our group kept a spotty animal watch and there was lots of oohing and aahing each time we saw a cute goat or colourful cow! I've put some of them in the 'Temples' post.
Then our next long journey - six hours on the train to get to Agra. As my cold was coming along nicely I climbed up onto the top bunk (not easy!) and stayed there until we got to the station.
The hotel in Agra was lovely - our best one this trip - the Pushp Palace.
It had a revolving restaurant upstairs so we had a meal there. It only moved very slowly but we didn't like it - it was like eating on a revolving fairground ride - so Kirsty asked if it could be stopped.
They obligingly stopped it!
The Taj Mahal was somewhere in the distance and we could only see a very vague outline but we were all very excited about seeing it properly!
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