Our first day in KL was a great reintroduction to the city (we had already been through for 1 night on our way to Bali) with our own tour guide extraordinaire Az chauffering us first to the impressive Batu caves, containing a Hindu temple in the side of a cliff with an enormous gold effigy of Shiva outside it and playful monkeys roaming the 272 steps. We were also quite impressed by the sheer amount of Western-style buildings and malls. Az’s explanation for this was that in Malaysia people don’t drink so they have lots more free cash for shopping! I guess it makes sense… We spent the evening exploring the colourful city centre and watching the surprisingly lavish Christmas celebrations before giving up on waiting to see the king, who was rumoured to be taking part in a big parade.

The next morning required an early start to queue for free tickets, and check the box for a Kuala Lumpur essential, by climbing the highest building in Malaysia – the Petronas towers (as seen in the film Entrapment!). Our hopes of bumping into Catherine Zeta-Jones at the top were crushed – alas we only found a window cleaner at the sky bridge that joins the towers. The rest of the day was dedicated to hunting out some bargains in the market in Chinatown – fake sunglasses, t-shirts, wallets (Ollie needed a replacement!) and many a snack were purchased using our superb haggling skills honed on the streets of India. With time pressing on, Christmas getting closer and beaches in the north calling, we decided to move on quickly to the next stop.

Penang, an island town in the north was of great interest to us – Ollie’s granddad was mayor of the town when it was part of the British empire in the 1950s, his mum was born there, it held a rich colonial history, and last but not least its gastro-reputation meant that we were very interested taste what it had to offer! We think we tried just about every delicacy possible to try in Malaysia including laksa (spicy coconut noodle soup/curry), char koay teow (stir fried flat noodles with prawns), some Indian food to reminisce, and jackfruit, which Mikey definitely was not a fan of and kept appearing in a variety of dishes unexpectedly! Durian is one which we could not find – a fruit similar to jackfruit that has a flavour often described as a sewer or toilet and is banned from hotels and public transport in much of South East Asia. Glad it was not in season.

The town itself was a blend of impressive colonial buildings, ancient eerie cemeteries (which were ‘explored’ at night), old Chinese shuttered clan houses, abandoned crumbling buildings and not a pavement in sight! On trying to reach Penang hill for a nice view of the island and to see where Ollie’s granddad had proposed to his grandma, we managed to take the bus to the other side of the island by accident, but it was a blessing in disguise as we were dropped at the entrance to the national park and decided to trek through it to a beach on one side called monkey beach, in search of monkeys. When we finally arrived at the beach after a 3 hour hike through the jungle, there were just lots of Indian and Malaysian locals camping there, with no monkeys to be found. We hoped the beach hadnt’ been named in the colonial times! We did manage to spot one monkey on the way to the beach that was amazingly fluffy and colourful but he was far too shy for a photo.

The next day we attempted again to go up the hill but were apparently too late to get tickets for the cable car and deciding that a 3 hour uphill trek and 3 in the afternoon was probably not a good idea, we returned back to the town centre for comfort food and a surprise motorbike GP that made for much entertainment. The race was right in the city centre, racing round colonial buildings on 125cc mopeds and the locals were taking it surprisingly seriously!

Deciding on a change of transport, we hopped on a ferry to our final port of call on our short trip up the west coast of Malaysia (it was monsoon season on the east) – the duty-free beach island of Pulau Langkawi near to the Thai border. Here, we sneaked in a couple of days of relaxation by the beach and cheap beer before the ‘stresses’ of the Thai islands that were awaiting us next. There wasn’t much to do here except recharge our tans and listen to some reggae at the ubiquitous Jamaican beach bar called Babylon before jumping onto another boat to cross the border into our fifth country for what was to be a memorable month.

Quotes:

*Waiting for street parade VIP in KL, a country where insulting royalty is illegal…*
Ollie to Mikey: I wish this tosser would turn up.
Mikey to Az: Who is this VIP we’re waiting for anyway?
Az: I think it’s the king…

Mikey (analysing a photo we had taken of Australian friend, Nick): Nick, why is your hair so…left?

Mikey’s dad flew over to join in with antics in the city and it was great to see him. Ditching Ollie for the rather pleasant hotel, where Mr Newman Snr was staying on Orchard Road (the main shopping and entertainment area), was a necessary evil on Mikey’s behalf. We all made sure to make the most of the available facilities though – gym, jacuzzi, and unlimited supply of soap, shampoo and shower gel from the cleaners trolley (Cheers Mikey!).

The next few days consisted of catching up with Mikey’s Dad whilst wandering around the city, sampling the local, Malay, Chinese and Indian gastro delicacies, admiring the rather impressive Christmas lights and getting lost attempting to navigate through the countless malls. The discovery of much missed but familiar tasting real ales served in the micro-breweries in Clarke Quay provided a welcome opportunity to relax in the evening and make use of the far more reasonable prices during happy hour in the day! The botanical gardens, centred around a piece of natural rainforest, the original scenery of pre-1800 Singapore were a pleasant, green break from the urban sprawl of the city centre, especially for resident botanist Mikey.

Raffles’ Hotel was a must on the to-do list and courtesy of Mikey’s Dad, we were treated to a Singapore Sling which the hotel is famous for inventing. At the heart of the colonial district, the hotel was a great example of the architecture which really characterised the older buildings on the island. Of particular enjoyment were the peanuts served on each table that you ate before discarding the shells on the floor. Ollie made sure to stock up with any that weren’t eaten!

After checking the listings for Singapore prior to arrival, we noticed that there was a festival on Sentosa island, a small beach resort tourist island to the south. Zoukout is staged once a year by the club Zouk and had a brilliant line-up that we could not miss out on. Richie Hawtin, Miss Kitten and the Hacker and DJ Craze were just a few of the DJs playing on the three stages at the beach festival. A combination of duty free alcohol (thank you airport) and Thai red bull kept us going until 7am dancing without a worry. A minor tarnish on the night was the sneaky fingers of Singapore’s only criminal, who managed to pinch Ollie’s wallet and disappear into the crowds on the dance floor before he could even turn around. After a manic panic and a pointless lost and found report, we sobered up, agreed to see the rest of the night out and got back in time to say ‘c’est la vie’ to Richie Hawtins final tunes. Smash.com

Quotes:

Paul: That pigeon looks disgusting!
Ollie: Where do you think they get them – have you ever seen a pigeon farm?..
Paul: I tried cockroach in Cambodia. At least you know what you’re getting with a cockroach!?

*Ollie comes in late and Mikey is in bed…gets woken and asks for water. Ollie kindly hands it to bald Mikey, lying in bed topless with his sheet wrapped around his torso and head and he drinks it sleepily*
Ollie: Mikey, you look like Ghandi!

*looking for a plug adaptor*
Mikey: 20 dollars? Why is this one so expensive?
Shop Assistant: This one has a 5 year guarantee, it’s very safe.
Mikey: Do you have anything that isn’t safe?
Shop Assistant: …
Shop Assistant: Yes sir, one moment *reaches behind counter*

We would have loved to stay longer in the Gilis, but our schedule meant we had to head across Bali by bus and then ferry to the even more volcanic island of Java. We wanted to see the renowned active volcano of Gunung Bromo and the surrounding landscape. Some bright spark (Lonely Planet) suggested the best time to do this was at sunrise, which meant a 3am start (thanks to a fake wake up call by a coat seller) after a few hours sleep, since we had arrived in the pitch black of the night before. Bleary eyed, we drove by jeep to the viewpoint with every other tourist worth their salt to see the, admittedly impressive, “other worldly” view of the sun rising over the largest volcano on Java and the smoking crater of Bromo. There was an unexpected but welcome reunion with our German friend Silke – who we had last seen riding a camel in the desert in India and were now greeting on the side of a volcano at 4 in the morning in Indonesia. After the sun had rose, there was an opportunity to smell the sulphur up close as we hiked to top of Bromo and peered into its depths.

An epic 12 hour minibus journey and some new Lithuanian mates (Paul and Sky) later, still on the same day, we arrived to our final Indonesian stop of Yogakarta (Jogja to the locals). This was a large city, fairly Western in places, but still with some solid Indonesian spirit. There was plenty of street food for us to sample (Pigeon, Mikey?) and a disappointing Sultan’s Palace, but visits to the surrounding temples made up for it. Despite another ridiculously early start, we were impressed by the scale and decoration of Borobodur Buddhist temple (number one attraction in Indonesia apparently), and looked on as they continued to repair the damage of recent earthquakes at the Hindu temple of Prambanan – one of the largest in Southeast Asia. Canadian Andrew (eh) had met up with us again at this point so we got down to what else Jogja had to offer. The rarest coffee in the world, Kopi Luwak, was sampled – a coffee made with the finest beans selected by and passed through a Civet cat. It was a tasty cuppa nonetheless! We also embarked on an Indonesian cooking course, learning several mouthwatering dishes that were unfortunately spoiled by deep frying everything at the end. Some good recipes to take back with us though if you remove the last step… After a relaxing final day making the most of the unlimited Java coffee and cable tv at our hostel, we arose early as usual to say goodbye to Indonesia and hello to Singapore.

Ubud, a hotbed of Balinese culture, was a more welcome introduction to Bali. Shops and workshops of Indonesian art are interspersed with beautifully decorated Hindu temples, while offerings of incense and food for the gods are placed on the pavements. With just one full day to soak up the culture, we hired bikes to make the most of it. The morning was spent in a monkey sanctuary where monkeys roamed around temples and stone carvings, occasionally stealing a snack from a tourist caught off-guard. Mikey seemed to be in his element here! In the heat of the afternoon sun, despite the doubts of the locals, we headed off on a 22km (half uphill!) round trip to visit a series of shrines carved into a cliff face called Gunung Kawi. The sense of achievement on making it definitely made it worthwhile, although we almost carried on past it by accident! Exhausted but proud, we relaxed in the evening watching some traditional Balinese dance (Kecak), which included some hypnotic chanting, impressive masks, crazy dancing and kicking burning coconut husks into a woman’s face in the crowd.

Friday, the official start of the weekend, meant it was time to head to Kuta for some partying. We experienced a reverse culture shock at the development and Western-ness of the beach resort and were amazed at the number of drunk Aussies filling the place. However we quickly got into the spirit of it, befriending some young Aussies at what was to become our regular haunt at the bottomless beer bar we discovered. The next couple of days were blurry – foam party on a ship, too many Aussies, bar in a hotel swimming pool, accidental gay bar, all you can eat sushi… but we finished with a fairly successful surfing brush up on the beach where we both managed to stand and ride waves in without looking too stupid.

Monkey man eats a coconut on the beach

Next stop was Kerala, further south down the West coast, a welcome break from the party-tastic state of Goa and a brilliant direction to head when we heard the cyclone was heading north! Our group at this point was the Brighton couple – Brad and Lorna, and we hadn’t quite managed to shake off Kara from Jaisalmer. The first town to tick off was Kochi, a quaint town with Portuguese influence, which we noticed more the further south we moved through India. The architecture was European and the beer was getting more expensive…were we in a crap version of Europe? Except for the Chinese style fishing nets and numerous Catholic churches there wasn’t much to do but chill out here, so it was a swift overnight stop (catching up with some Scottish friends from Palolem and a few new acquaintances) before heading to Alleppey for some Kerala backwaters houseboat action.

Sunset by the fishing nets in Fort Kochi

The first night in Alleppey was a pretty much a sleepover. We decided to squeeze five of us into a double room, saving so much that we could even ‘splash out’ on air con! Next morning, after picking up some supplies and 2 replacement bottles of spirits for the ones broken by Mikey, we hopped onto our own personal houseboat to do a 24 hour tour of the Keralan backwaters – a series of peaceful, lush water channels and the perfect way to see a bit of Kerala away from the towns. It rained most of the time on the boat, but we were able to relax under cover with a few beers, ably steered by the captain of the boat, and ably catered for by the boat’s cook. The Keralan delicacies he created were a definite highlight and were capped off by some enormous fresh water king prawns we purchased from a passing fisherman.

Relaxing on our houseboat

Captain of the ship!

Rain on the Keralan backwaters

Suitably relaxed, and slightly hungover, we moved on to the Keralan beach resort of Varkala the next morning. It had been almost a week since we had seen a beach! Varkala had a similar feel to Arambol and Palolem with an array of restaurants lining the cliff side above another pretty Indian beach. We managed to find another gem of a hostel – this time, one opened just 3 days before we arrived called Woodstock, run with a passion by the endearing Ignacious. His interest in the environment gave him and Mikey a head start and they became best buds!…which lead us straight into a stint at volunteering with picking litter from the cliff later in the week!

An early morning litter picking session in Varkala

Feeling so at home in the hostel, we managed to while away another week by a beach, getting a solid workout each day going up and down the cliff stairs to the beach and being thrown about by the big waves and strong currents and catching up on a few good books and old friends who had followed us there.

Brad and Lorna on Varkala cliffside

Concealed alcohol in a Varkala restaurant

The beach at Varkala

After a week has passed, we realised we had better get a move on if we wanted to catch our plane out of India. One stressful transport arrangement later (you need a degree to book a train online in India!), we were on our way to the state of Tamil Nadu and the city of Tiruchirappalli (conveniently shortened to Trichy by the locals). The overnight train journey was unexpectedly smooth for once and we arrived in Trichy eager to squeeze out as much Indian culture as we could in for our last day but within the constraints of our dwindling stockpile of rupees. We ate Indian for all 3 meals of the day at the cheapest but busiest local restaurants, travelled by crowded inner city buses (a rickshaw was a rupee too far at this time) and saw the largest temple in India – a breathtaking complex with a 73 metre colourful gateway that looked almost alien from a distance, all on budget of £2 each. We even had change left over for the bus to the airport the next morning, and with just 10 rupees to our names we said farewell to India.

The 73m high Srirangam temple in Trichy

Ollie: Did you get pistachio flavour Ice cream?
Mikey: No, its vanilla.
Ollie: Thought it was green?!
Mikey: It is!

A lazy day for some...

The deserted sand of Arambol

Goa. First stop was Arambol beach in the north of Goa which we reached via an overnight train from Mumbai. The train was one of the busiest night trains we had been on – so busy, in fact, that Rob was kindly asked (repeatedly) to move from his claimed seat and had to sleep big spoon with several small locals on a cramped carriage floor already overflowing with bags. Apparently it’s not the comfiest way to travel! Arambol turned out to be a brilliant travellers haven. With a beach, bamboo huts and plenty of affordable bars and restaurants, we realised within minutes of arriving that we might be there for a while. The place we based ourselves – ResidentSea – included beach huts centred around a restaurant and brilliant, friendly and welcoming staff eager to cater for our every need. It turned out that most of the people staying there were British or English speaking. We all got on like a house on fire and decided to extend our stay because of it!

Our beach hut at ResidenSea

Dinner on the beach with the ResidenSea crew

The ResidenSea staff (and Bill)

During our time in Arambol, we spent a lot of time on the beach relaxing after the fast-paced, comparatively stressful nature of the north of India. This was interspersed with epic pool and chess marathons in the bars when the heat of the day got too much, and the hardest decision of every day – what and where to eat of an evening. The answer was Goan curries, a wide range of fresh seafood (kingfish, tuna, barracuda, red snapper, jumbo prawns, calamari…) and even some pretty good steak (try finding that elsewhere in India).

A spot of football on Arambol beach

Sunset over the Arabian Sea

Chris, Jemma, Kara, Lorna, Brad, Ollie, Mikey, Shane, Ali and Jack

We ventured out of the area a few times on day trips visiting Old Goa – a relic of the Portuguese occupation of the area. The churches in Old Goa were a welcome break from the Indian architecture. It was like walking briefly through a European religious site as three towering cathedral churches occupied the same grassy, well manicured city square. We also rode to a spice plantation in Ponda where we tried some of the best food in India, served on a banana leaf in an all-you-can-eat buffet form (a thali).

Cathedral in Old Goa

Crossing the bridge to the spice plantation

A delectable thali...

The A-Team

Mikey ventured off with some of the Brits on one crazy night to Anjuna beach, 20 minutes down the coast, at a bar called Curlies, followed by a party in a jungle valley which definitely showed what happens by night in Goa. The psy-trance music was heavy and the people were a little crazy but nonetheless, partying until sunlight was a necessity. When in Rome! May have broken the budget slightly but well worth it!

The cows race to claim the sun loungers at Anjuna

How to party in Goa

Sunset at Curlie's

After two weeks of “getting stuck” in Arambol, we finally made a leap south by 60km to the paradise of Palolem (still in Goa, still a beach) along with some additional stragglers we had met – three couples from the UK, Australia and South Africa. The first night provided us with an unforgettable pink/purple sunset and the following few days brought us more sun, sea and sand. The cove was a picturesque, desert island dream with a long sweeping beach lined with palm trees, a small island called Monkey Island visible off the peninsular on one side and an array of beach huts, bars and restaurants.

Possibly the best sunset of our lives in Palolem

Palolem beach

One night brought us a silent disco in part of the bay, set back a little bit and a small climb around the cliff edge, looking out across the bay with large visuals and a huge double-decker wooden podium/bar. An ingenious idea because the law in Goa states that no music can be played after 10pm (although many clubs just pay the police off…so we heard!) so when the time came, the music was turned off and everybody switched on the provided headphones and picked a channel to dance from, from the three available djs. It was a memorable night, even withstanding the fact Ollie had to sleep on a sun lounger due to a drunken miscommunication over the whereabouts of our hut key!

Merry scenes at the silent disco

The silent disco venue with the beach in the background

It appeared karma was dealing out some revenge for our smugness at the no doubt poor weather back in the UK when we experienced some pretty heavy rain one day. The newspaper the next morning warned us that a cyclone was about to hit the west coast of India, and although we avoided the worst of it, heavy rain, thunder storms and power cuts continued for the next couple of days. Slightly unnerving whilst sleeping in a simple bamboo hut! Even the cyclone couldn’t dampen our enjoyment of Palolem, but after a week we decided we should probably get a move on further south, and waved an emotional “see you next time” to Goa.

Relaxation time

Hanging around...

Hookah time at Cafe Del Mar

Quotes:

Mikey: Where is a dolphin’s penis?
Rob: Don’t you know? Under the tail – if you haven’t w**ked off a dolphin, your not a Kiwi!

Rob to Mikey before they shared a bed in beach hut: How naked are you getting before you get under my mosquito net?

A local dog enjoys the view

Our first bus trip...

The troublesome trio (A.K.A Rob Awesome, our Kiwi companion from Jaisalmer, MK Ultra and Pollie) travelled swiftly and surprisingly without delay to Udaipur from Jaisalmer. This was our first bus journey,  across some hair raising terrain – a windy, cliff side, bumpy, narrow road with a sheer drop on one side, traffic in both directions, and a driver with a death wish (aka every driver in India). We learned one lesson quick and that was never sit at the back of the bus. Apparently running water has reached India before the wacky invention of suspension. Three spinal chords, three cups of chai and several ropey roadside samosas later, we arrived at our hostel feeling like we had just been in a washing machine for 7 hours, but were soon relaxed by the beautiful surroundings and dirt cheap hostel. Right on the side of the famous lake used as the setting of Octopussy (which was shown at around 7pm every night in just about every café and we felt obliged to watch), it felt quite different from anything we had yet seen in India.

The lake palace in Udaipur

Although the palace, royal car collection (with free thali!) and the town were beautiful, we found that the hostel terrace by the lake was great to sit by with a beer or five. We spent the majority of our time here, with regular excursions back into town for supplies and drunkenly haggled souvenirs. The lake itself was a nice break from the desert-scape and dirt we had been used to through the rest of Rajasthan.

Chilling in the 'rooftop swimming pool' in our hostel

No words needed...

Audition for Karate Kid

After 2 nights there, onward to Mumbai. Our first overnight coach journey was definitely a journey to remember, although we‘d prefer to forget. We were positioned in horizontal sleeper cabins – effectively a two man coffin. We knew it was going to be an interesting ride we had to gaffa tape the window to keep it shut. By chance (or strategic tourist placing) we were at the back of the bus yet again and sure enough, it claimed the award for worst journey so far! We all agreed that the most disturbing feeling was waking up in mid air as we bounced from the potholes in the road after about a minute interval of sleep. The deafening horn that was sounded every 5 minutes, playing a cacophonous jingle was the icing on the cake. With no sleep and empty stomachs we were dumped the next morning… at the wrong end of Mumbai (population 16 million). After a taxi ride to the wrong location and much debate (always enjoyable after an 16 hour bus ride), we found a Salvation Army hostel and set up camp.

Some wise words in Mumbai

Chowpatty beach

Over the next couple of days in Mumbai, we explored some of the city, picking up more friends old and new on the way. The coastline was quite nice, we ventured to Chowpatty beach where we were treated like celebrities by the local kids but we missed the ‘Indian feel’ of the city and the size of it was daunting. Ollie and Kara (our American friend from Jaisalmer) managed to star in a Bollywood film offering their English speaking acting skills for voice dubbing an upcoming movie (500 rupees for half a days work) but Mikey and Rob didn’t complete the journey across the city due to a prior engagement with the bars of Mumbai. The journey to Bollywood was just too much so jumping out half way there, their adventure began. The day ended with a man down (Rob) and a trip to a club underneath the Hyatt hotel called China House where the Indians were rich and the music was… better than usual! It was quite a surreal experience going to the club because you had to clear security twice then walk through the very modern and western hotel, out the back through a Japanese water garden and down a back staircase. After blagging our way onto the exclusive guest list through a friendly Indian with connections we had befriended, we had a memorable night seeing how the other half of India partied. Although the night was fruitful, we agreed that we had had enough of the big city and were ready to hit the beaches of Goa!

Rob, Mikey and Kara explore the beach

The entrance to India - India Gate

Quotes:

Mikey: Hey man, this is the only place with sound Indians in Mumbai.
Ollie: Yep, you gotta pay three grand to meet them!

Sun setting over Mumbai skyline

After the last post, we quickly found the cheapest bar near our hotel to warm up for our last night in Delhi. We stumbled across a club with a live jukebox – a band made up of a variety of east-asian nationals who took requests. And of course every band is not without their groupies – we made our first Indian mates there, a group from Manali in the North of India, Himalayas who insisted we should travel 13 hours north to visit their home. Tempting though it was, we stuck to our original plan and caught our first train the next day to Agra.

Our mates from Manali

Going for budget over comfort, we have been choosing the cheaper tickets for train rides. It’s no luxury but with a few cups of chai (Indian tea) from the chai-wallah to feed our ever-growing caffeine addictions, the journeys pass fairly quickly, although not helped by the inevitable two hour delay on every train.

Luxury sleeper class train

The train eventually brought us to Agra which is home to the Taj Mahal. Aside from the Taj and a fort, there is not much of interest in the city and we dubbed it “the second ****hole of India” (after Delhi) during one of our more cynical moments! The Taj itself is a complete contrast – seeing it just after sunrise was brilliant (except for the getting up at 5.30 part) although we appreciated it just as much from our hotel rooftop in the evening whilst drinking a chilled Kingfisher.

The Taj at sunrise

The classic Taj photo part 1

The classic Taj photo part 2

Man and cow in Agra

As we write this we have also covered a large part of Rajasthan – going east on the train through Jaipur (the pink city), Jodhpur (the blue city) and Jaisalmer (the golden city) where we are now. We’ve now seen enough forts and palaces to last a lifetime but the highlight of each day seems to be the food. It’s turning into a gastro-tour! We used Japipur to relax after the hustle and bustle of Agra and Delhi, Jodhpur was pretty but we had exhausted the city after half a day, however Jaisalmer is a definite favourite city so far. Jaisalmer is a lot cleaner and more laid back (probably due to the heat) and has a more European feel to it. We are still recovering from memorable 2 day camel trek into the Thar desert where we slept on sand dunes under the stars. Tonight we will celebrate Diwali, no doubt with lots of ‘crack’ and food, before heading south to Udaipur tomorrow evening.

A view of Jaipur from the safety of our cycle rickshaw

The view from Jodhpur fort

Jaisalmer fort and town

Lawrence of Arabia and Padum the camel

Mikey with his camel in one of its better moods...

Quotes:

Rickshaw driver: Hey, you want ride? Indian helicopter!

Ollie: Yeah, our train was delayed by a couple of hours, not sure why…
Hotel Manager: *acknowledging smile* India!

Mikey (admiring the Taj Mahal): It’s quite big, isn’t it.

Mikey (still admiring the Taj Mahal): It’s not got as much blue as I expected…

Indian guy: India is great but always late…

Kara: I was travelling with some Brits before that could do circus tricks
Rob: So you could say you were travelling with a circus of Brits?
Kara: Yes.
Rob: I wondered what the collective term was.

Shopkeeper: Yes?
Mikey (passing the shop): No.
Shopkeeper: Why not?
Mikey (looking at what is available in the shop): I don’t want any eggs, and I don’t want any t-shirts!

Ollie, Rob, Silke, Brian and Kara on the camel trek

The bustling streets of Delhi

So we have arrived in Delhi – our 1st stop “deep end” travelling with budget hostel and it is safe to say we have subjected our senses to a minefield of “interesting” sounds sights and……smells. Our first night was spent in a jet-lagged disorientated state and a few beers on the rooftop cafes of the main bazaar of old Delhi definitely helped us sedate ourselves and at the same time absorb an array of local culture….from a safe distance of 3 stories up!

The view of the street from our hostel

The second day is slowly coming to a close as I write this and we have organised our travel tomorrow to Agra – where the Taj Mahal stands. It is safe to say that we have seen all we want to see of Delhi…and we have some brilliant quotes to take away with us:

A monument at India Gate

1

Tuk tuk driver: Where are you from?

Ollie: England.

Tuk: oh England ….lovely jubbly!

2

Tuk tuk driver: There is a festival tomorrow.

Mikey: Oh, Really?

Tuk tuk: Yes you will like it there is lots of Crack!

Mikey: Excuse me?…….oh you mean fireworks?

Tuk: Yes sir.

3

Mikey: They didnt like us in that local canteen.

Ollie: Racism!

Mikey: Post-colonial racism maybe?