We’re Sari to say goodbye

The 5am wake up alarm and the hasty dressing and packing interrupted

my final morning reflections, so I’m writing these in transit on our long journey home.

Even at 6am the streets were busy on our drive to the airport. There is always a lot of interest from people that we pass - they peer into the bus windows and some wave. A few times during the trip we have had small children bang on the bus sides or the windows to get our attention. If you look at the bus photo you can see a little hand in the window behind Josh. 

I’m still not taken with Delhi as I was with the earlier cities we visited. Not a bad place, just more urban and developed. There is a LOT of cricket going on here. We passed a long “park” (no grass just dirt) that had at least 30 games of cricket being played in a 200m stretch. It doesn’t just happen in parks though - we saw both adults and children playing in alley cul de sacs, on the footpath in front of a shop, and even on the median strip in the middle of a road. 

Despite the more urban profile, the people here are as friendly and welcoming as those we have encountered elsewhere. For me, the people have been the highlight of the whole ten days. I’m engaged by their genuine curiosity and interest in personal details - what do I do, do I like it, what family members do I have, where have we travelled and so on. They are equally willing to share all manner of information, including honest personal opinions that we would struggle to admit to our closest friends. Before the trip, people told me that I would ‘love it or hate it’ and as it turns out I have quite fallen in love with India. The people and the chaos and the authenticity all came together to provide an incredible experience, helped along by our tour planner, Indian Excursions, and my traveling companions, the Starrett Boys. Thanks for following, for the likes and comments on Facebook, the emails and the texts and comments on the blog. We’ll be back in 2019 with a new adventure. 

Delhi Dally

On the stairwell at our hotel, there is a sign that says “Buy one single malt, get one free”. Flynn thought it might be malt milkshakes and was pretty keen to get the deal. We sped through breakfast to be ready for our pickup at 8:15. Our guide asked us to go back up to the rooms to get our hotel slippers, as we would need them for our first stop today, the Jama Masid Mosque which is the largest mosque in India. I was covered up enough to be allowed in as is, but Josh and Flynn, both in shorts, were given natty checked skirts to put on. We shuffled about in our slippers (too big for me, too small for everyone else) and our guide Dave explained some of the features of the mosque. He wasn’t a great storyteller - lots of facts and names and dates and we were not particularly engaged. Following the mosque, we hopped onto a couple of rickshaws for a drive around the market area. Unfortunately, as it was Sunday, most of the stalls were closed. Many of the street food vendors were doing a brisk trade though, serving various hot breads with little bowls of curry. It smelled sooo good. We saw a very young barber (12 or so?) shaving a customer, and also piles of used textbooks piled in stacks for sale. The stray dogs here, like everywhere we’ve been, look well fed. Our guide told us that when young girls are taught to cook, the rule is that the first chapatti is for the cow and the last is for the dog. There is an odd juxtaposition between the scrupulously clean steps and pathways and the piles of rubbish in crevices and corners. We see people sweeping and cleaning all the time, but there is nothing to do with the rubbish once piled up.

Our next stop, Humayun’s tomb was set in a lovely garden area and was an impressive structure. Team Starrett however was done with monuments. We responded just enough to be polite and moved through fairly quickly. It was beautiful, but we have been looking at beautiful architecture all week, so it needed stories to bring it to life. We had a similar response to the stop at the Qutab Minar. I felt badly that we were unappreciative, but I’m telling it like it was. This stop was enlivened by a few hundred uniformed cadets (air force, navy and army) who were visiting the monument. Beautifully uniformed and groomed, they were all madly taking photos of themselves and each other. We were a curiosity and were asked to be in a few photos. Flynn was mobbed by some young Indian girls, participated in a number of photos and quite enjoyed himself. They all giggled when he walked by them again on the way out. Abandoning all culture, we headed off to the New Delhi Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. This is Flynn’s 18th Hard Rock visit. For those not in the know, he went to his first Hard Rock at age six, loved it, and declared his intention to visit all of them. We didn’t have the heart to disclose to him that there were over a hundred, but as it turns out he’s not doing too badly for a fourteen year old. 

After driving past the parliamentary section of the city (mostly closed off for a holiday on the 26th), we drove to our last stop for the day, the city’s largest Sikh temple. We shed our shoes and socks and put on head coverings in a little room set aside for foreigners. Then we had to wash our feet by walking through a shallow pool of water (we were supposed to do our hands as well but we were all a bit cringy at putting our FEET in the water with the other 20000 people there, so let the hand part go through to the keeper. The press of people was disconcerting. A human tide that pushed you along, regardless of the direction you wanted to go. The bare feet thing was also challenging as other people’s feet kept touching ours. I don’t want to sound like a princess but this was worse than camping. Josh and Flynn were equally challenged (Josh suggested an alternative blog title of “Sikh is sick and not in the good way” which I rejected). We spent a few minutes in the temple sitting and listening and then headed back out and down to the community kitchen. What an amazing facility. Hundreds of people at a time are let in to sit in rows for ten minutes to get a free meal. As foreigners, we were allowed through the food prep and kitchen areas (in bare feet mind you) to see the operations. Fires were roaring under giant cauldrons of dahl and curry. Some stations were rolling roti, others were cooking it on a big grill and we were given one to taste hot off the grill. The cooked food is wheeled to a serving window and then scooped into buckets. I’ve included a photo of this part. It was incredibly chaotic but very organised at the same time. A bit awed, we collected our shoes and headed off back to the hotel. 

Dinner tonight was at Bukhara- a restaurant I had researched and pre booked. There was a slideshow at the entrance of celebrity diners that amused the boys - Bill Clinton, Tony Abbot, Arnold Schwarzenegger to name a few (easily over 100). The specialty is char smoked Indian meats. No cutlery is provided, so diners eat with their hands and mop up the dahl with naan. The spice level packed a punch but this was definitely the best meal experience during our trip and a great meal to finish our adventure on (except for Josh, who ate only naan). 

A GRAnd sight to see

In need of a break from the Indian food offerings, I opted for a cereal and toast breakfast today. Unfortunately the restaurant manager had other ideas. He personally decided that I needed to try the Rajasthan specialties, and brought things over with tongs to put on my plate as well as specially ordering a dosa for me. I struggled through with a mental note to walk as much a possible today. We started off with an early morning visit to the Taj Mahal. I was so busy fending off vendors that when our guide came over with the required shoe covers for us, I didn’t look up and waved him  off with a ‘no thank you’.

We were nice and early so it wasn’t very crowded and we were though security in a matter if minutes. What a truly magnificent structure. It’s impossible to describe how beautiful it is and I won’t even try. Suffice to say that you shouldn’t leave it off your itinerary. The photography activity in the grounds is intense. There are western girls who have dressed in saris, families who have coordinated their outfits for matching family photos and even a elderly Chinese couple - she in a sari that showed her tummy  and he in a turban, getting professional photos taken. A number of tourists were so busy with their selfie sticks that I’m not sure they really looked at the building. I caved to the pressure to pay for photos and now have a disk with fifty photos on it that I can’t access till I get home. 

We followed the Taj Mahal with a trip to the Agra Fort. This was quite similar to Fatehpur Sikri from yesterday, although more examples of the decoration and inlay work remain. Then it was farewell to Agra and off for the four hour drive to Delhi. Agra    was not a city I would race back to see, but the Taj Mahal was worth the stopover. It was interesting to see some different residential areas and to see that most of the cows were tied up on people’s driveways, rather than roaming free.

We were a bit peckish when we arrived in Delhi and the driver suggested we stop at McDonalds. At least that’s what we thought he said. It turns out he said Dominos. We went in and tried to order at the counter. The girl made us sit down and gave us a menu. We tried to ask what sizes the pizzas were. She said “we have nothing” and disappeared out the back. We gave up and went back to the bus. The traffic here is bumper to bumper. I guess it‘s understandable given the population of Delhi is not far off the population of the whole of Australia. Still - our diver told us that sometimes it takes an hour to drive a km. 

Our hotel, the Oberoi Maidens, is a heritage building that housed the viceroy during the British Raj. There is lots of dark timber with old carpets, a grand staircase, high ceilings and white plaster walls. We were greeted with little cups of hot chocolate and a few personal introductions from various people (I hope there is no test later as I have no idea who they are or why they came out to say hi). One of our rooms was upgraded to a suite, which was a nice surprise. We opted for afternoon tea on the garden terrace to tide us over till dinner time. My tea was “in the house” and did not appear on the bill. We explored the grounds, which are very lush compared to the other cities we have visited on this trip, and then decided on wifi time and a light dinner at the hotel. 

Indian Idyll

Getting up in the cold for another early start (5.30) was a bit challenging. I don’t want to complain too much however, as Josh did a 4.30am trek to the reception lobby to use the wifi to enrol in the other half of his uni courses. It took about fifteen minutes to get to the train station. There were a surprising number of people up and about their daily tasks in the dim light, masked by smoke from the little brazier fires. The station was very similar to ours at home, although the platform was at least 200m long. The porters were all dressed in red and one of ours carried our suitcase on his head. The train was clean and comfortable, but very old. The chai wallah walked up and down the train, selling chai from an aluminium canister yelling “chaaa-yee”, other attendants sold snacks and something wrapped in foil that looked interesting. We would have loved to try some but are staying completely conservative food wise. 

We were met at the station by an escort who reunited us with our drivers. It was nice to see two friendly faces and be back in our little bus. They took us to see Fatehpur Sikri, a palace built in the 16th century and then abandoned 14 years later. Our new guide had some interesting stories, and it was good to walk about and stretch our legs after the train ride. I have included a photo of Team Starrett standing in the chief accountant’s “office”. There was a wild pig with two very cute baby pigs that prompted an interesting commentary from our guide about Muslim / Hindu relationships. He’s quite political with strong opinions about religion and although the boys tune out to these discussions, I’m fascinated (edit: Flynn has contested this and said they don’t tune out but at the time of this particular conversation, they were distracted by a very small puppy). After a brief lunch stop, where Josh was reunited with his beloved chicken fingers and chips, we headed on to Agra. I’ve included a photo of an interesting ‘vehicle’ that we keep seeing here - I THINK it is some kind of mobile disco but we don’t know and there are dozens of them. 

Our hotel here is luxurious, but is part of a chain, and is lacking some of the charm of our other stays to date. Our original plan was to have some down time and take advantage of the hotel entertainment options, but everything costs extra - the wifi, the pool table and most of the recreation offerings. My frugal boys completely objected to paying for the recreational options and Flynn even tried to talk me out of paying for wifi (“It’s only one night”). We found that table tennis was free so played an energetic game of that, the boys had a race to find the centre of a littlemaze, and we watched a very playful baby monkey roll about on the lawn. We were at a bit of a loss to fill the time before dinner so I overruled their expenditure decision and paid for a round for each of them on the all terrain vehicle track. They were a bit shocked that I was allowed to sign the disclaimer before I read the safety rules (the boys of course all read them) and that Flynn and Campbell were allowed to use the big bike although they were not 16. Does anyone want to chime in on whether rule following is genetic or whether I’ve influenced my three? 

This was our least favourite day so far, but it was still filled with some great conversations, cheerful attitudes and a lot of laughter. 

The Jungle Book

At 5:45am a tray with coffee and hot milk was delivered to our tent. We dressed quickly in as many layers as possible and went to reception to wait for our safari jeep. This gave us all a quick hit of wifi time - important as so much still goes on back at home while we are away. We were all provided with a thick woollen blanket and a hot water bottle before we climbed into the open top Jeep for the five minute drive to Ranthambore National Park. It was still dark, with the dawn just breaking and it was exhilarating to be speeding along in an open car in this exotic place. The roads are dirt and very rocky and the car goes about 60km/h, dodging and weaving around potholes, rocks, goats and cows. There were no seatbelts and the sides were low. We had a few giggles about the difference between this and the safari ride at Disneyworld in Florida, which is clearly the theme park version of our experience. The entrance to the park is through an old fort gate overgrown with trees - very Indiana Jones. Everyone we spoke to prior to going on the safari, wished us good luck for tiger spotting. I understand that quite often, there are no tigers seen on the safari trip.

We headed into our area for the morning, Area three. There was then a period with a lot of driving back and forth and talking with other Jeep drivers. We are a bit suspicious that the talk was just chit chat and nothing to do with finding a tiger. We saw monkeys, a few different kinds of deer, antelopes and a lot of peacocks. The guides would stop and listen periodically to hear other animals making alarm calls and then drive in that direction. We stopped a few times for them to show us fresh tiger tracks in the dirt. When they found the tiger, it was quite exciting. She was majestic and completely unfazed by the watchers. She walked across the road in front of us and then along to the side and then disappeared into the jungle. The wild pigs and the crocodile after that were an anticlimax. Our guide told us that we couldn’t tell anyone that we had seen the tiger, since we had been driving in a section where we were not supposed to be. On the way back, we were stopped by the park security who we THINK fined the driver and the guide for driving on the path we were on. We are not sure if this is a normal occurrence or whether we just had a guide that was extra nice to us.

After a bit of down time in the sun, we ate lunch and headed off for the  afternoon safari. This one outdid the first. The track we were allocated to was in a different part of the national park, heavily forested on one side with a dry river bed on the other. The cliffs with the old fort on them towered a few hundred meters above us, and we could just make out monkeys scampering around the fort walls. We were lucky enough to find a tiger cub, about 18 months old. We watched it sitting about then stalking a sambal deer for about an hour and a half. I think the guide was hoping it would attack the deer but that didn’t happen and eventually we headed off back to our hotel. The boys wandered off to “meet the cows” (don’t ask) and I found another scarf at the textile shop that I needed to buy. There were the most beautiful fabrics and would have loved more time and available spending money to indulge. Dinner was vegetarian and tasty, with all the vegetables grown on the home farm. We settled in for the night to refresh for the early start on Friday. 

For the birds

Everyone was up and ready for a early breakfast this morning. The restaurant manager was very attentive today. After I put my toast in the conveyor he made me sit down and then brought the toast to me. Then he produced a bucket of pastries and muffins for the car trip today. There was about an hour free once we had eaten and packed so we decided to take advantage of as many hotel amenities as possible. The grounds are full of peacocks and pigeons, and great flocks of them fly away as you approach. We managed to fit in table tennis, a game of pool and a hilarious game of croquet. One of the groundsmen showed us how to play and stayed with us for the game, helping, encouraging and laughing at our triumphs and failures. The game took a little too long so we had to abandon it with Flynn in the lead. Our first stop was Dera Amer, a sustainable farming enterprise with tourism offerings. They have rescued some elephants from the town and we were able to feed them, wash them, paint a small design on the trunk and then ride through the forest for about 20 minutes. They like to be scrubbed very hard and after the boys first tentative goes the mahout kept encouraging them to scrub “harder, harder”. It was incredibly peaceful on our elephant ride -a stark contrast to the noise of the city. We ambled along accompanied by only the creak of the Howdah harness, the clicks of the mahout to the elephant and the tree leaves rustling in the breeze. We saw peacocks, monkeys and a couple of antelopes as well as the ubiquitous cows and goats. They served us a lunch where all the vegetables has been grown on their farm, followed by gulab jamin, a semolina pudding and a cup of the best black tea I have ever had. Campbell had an odd experience where the birds kept swooping him and dropping sticks on him. I thought they might like the look of his hair, with the blond bits a big contrast to the dark hair they usually see. We climbed back on our bus, a bit snoozy for the drive to Ranthambore. It was a long bumpy drive and the sun was hot through the windows of our little bus. We are getting a bit better at understanding our driver and we correctly interpreted his direction to look at the cow pats drying on the roof of the houses, the giant shiva and monkey god statues, and the rice growing in the fields. Hi-vis orange and saffron yellow are the colours of choice for saris in this area and we could have taken many many picturesque photos showing the contrast of the sari clad ladies with the dusty road. We arrived at Ranthambore after about four hours and were given the now familiar welcome of a Bindi on our forehead and a cool fruity drink. We are staying in tents. Glam, timber floored, bathroom fitted tents, but still tents. I liked it for about 10 minutes. It is quite cool here at night, about 6 degrees, and this is an eco friendly resort so hot water usage has specific times. Not that it matters because the hot water is more of a lukewarm style of hot. My roomie Campbell told me casually that ‘it’s not very hot’ and after I stepped in I realised that was the understatement of the day. Wet, cold and shivering in my tent bathroom, I remembered my hatred of camping and tents and regretted the resort choice. There is no wi fi, dinner is at 8pm (my bedtime in India) and I’m feeling a little sorry for myself. I’m sure tomorrow the tiger safari will reengage me, and they did put hot water bottles in the beds. The boys seem happy - Flynn and Josh have designed certain bird calls you have to make when you visit them so they know who is there. When you approach their tent, they bark out “identify yourself”, and you have to do a bird call. Apparently my kookaburra sounds like a monkey, but they are willing to let me in anyway since “I paid for the trip”.

The maharaja, with the rifle, in the observatory

This hotel is gorgeous but it’s large (90 rooms) and the personalised service that we enjoyed at our boutique hotel in Jodhpur was missing. Breakfast was buffet style with a few Indian offerings and was fairly pedestrian. Our guide today was Mr Singh, a lovely man who has been guiding in Jaipur for 22 years. He was probably our favourite guide so far with plenty of stories and a good sense of humour. He did a little head wobble when he agreed with something (like a bobble head) that made us giggle a bit. He won my favour right away when he talked to the boys about how important their mother was.
Jaipur is a planned city, with a grid layout and wide streets. That didn’t change the traffic chaos and the variety of transport didn’t help - cars, camel carts, scooters, hand carts and tuk tuks, with people on foot weaving in and out adding to the confusion. We became some of those human weavers when we stopped and crossed the road to see the outside of the wind palace (a facade for the royal ladies to sit behind and watch processions). There were three snake charmers outside the bus - Mr Singh said that the hot air from the flutes is what attracts the snakes and makes them rise up. I’ve included a photo below. We passed a KFC but it was a knock off, “King Fried Chicken” , although still decorated in red and white with the familiar font.
We continued on to the Amber Fort where we were guided through with a constant stream of interesting stories and historical and social commentary. Mr Singh was a bossy photographer and he made sure we have plenty of good photos to help remember the fort. It was pretty magnificent, and, like the fort at Jodhpur, highly defensible. I wondered how the Mughals had ever taken power, and then after that, the British. Mr Singh gave us some good insights about the change agent of gunpowder, and weakness of not working together.  Afterwards we made a brief stop to look at the water palace. This was built on the lake to attract birds (for shooting) and used as a picnic area by the royal family. It’s closed now but if anyone ever puts a restaurant there it will be a destination experience.
The observatory was our next stop. Built in 1734 it is a set of nineteen giant structures used for astrology- one that pinpoints the location of the sun, one that tells the current zodiac sign etc. It looks like it could have been built  recently, and the accuracy is within a few seconds/degrees . It’s hard to believe how advanced these people were so very long ago. It’s an odd contrast when you then consider the current lack of clean water to drink.
Across the street was the City palace. My favourite was the costume museum. The highlight of this for the boys was the clothing of Madho Singh - a seven foot tall king who weighed 215kg. You can imagine the size of his dresses... There were some odd displays of rifles arranged in fancy patterns on the walls. The royal family still lives in the palace and I kept thinking of the parallels with Windsor castle and hundreds of people trooping through to gawk. There was a large, armed security presence at both the observatory and the palace. We can’t quite figure out the metal detectors as they beep all the time and no one seems to care.
Our lunch stop was tasty and reasonably priced. When the meal was over the owner brought over a tray with large sugar crystals and aniseed on it. He showed us how to put a small scoop of each into our mouth. Apparently it aids digestion and is a breath freshener. Whatever the point, it was something new and we were all interested.
We finished off our outing with a walk through a old city markets. As with Jodhpur, these are real markets for residents, with no tourist tat in sight. Lots of the shopkeepers are practing their trade on the doorway or on the street in front of their shop - carving legs for settees, weaving bed bases, and sewing on ancient looking singers.There were a lot of street vendors here and the snacks looked good. Flynn was very wistful that we couldn’t try them and there was a group discussion at some stage as to whether the packaged ice creams might be ok (decision no).

Back at the hotel for some downtime, the boys’ plans to use the hotel entertainment offerings (quoits, table tennis etc) were crushed by the blocked off areas being set up for an Indian wedding. They ran with another game of chess before an excellent dinner at the Italian restaurant at the hotel. We are yet to venture out for dinner anywhere, being worn out by the time dinner time arrives and happy with the convenience of the hotel.

The long and winding road

Breakfast here is a lovely quiet time, sitting on the terrace with a fresh coffee, beautiful table linen and charcoal braziers for warmth . We couldn’t resist ordering more Mung bean pancakes and tried a Dosa Masala - a flat crepe style bread, fried on one side and wrapped around potatoes and peas. It was served with various small bowls of condiments that we all try but are completely in the dark as to what they are. When I say “All”, I really mean three of us....Josh had normal pancakes and an apple. They brought the boys hot chocolate this morning, served in a fancy white teapot and poured by the server with a flourish. 

We headed off by Tuk Tuk through to a road big enough for our little bus and climbed in to start the six hour drive to Jaipur. The bus had been pimped up for our drive -it was fragrant with sandalwood and white cotton covers had been put on all the seats. I’m not normally an incense fan, but perhaps there is a difference if the quality is good as it was very pleasant. 

It took about seven hours to get to Jaipur, including a stop for lunch half way through.  We stopped to feed some cows at one stage (the driver was very pleased with himself for organising it) and he offered to stop at any stage for photos but we were keen to press on. There was a lot to look at but it blurred together after a while. Periodically our driver would yell for us to look at something. What with the noise of our bus and the other road users, the Indian music on the radio, his very strong accent and his limited English we could understand very little. We nodded, smiled, and looked in the appropriate direction. I managed to get one “This is where all marble is cut, sold. Black, white, red. All colours. Agra, from here. Jodhpur from here. All marble. Black, white, red.“ Once I realised that he repeated himself, there were a few more clues to decipher but I’m still very curious about many of the things we passed and have no idea what we were looking at.

The hotel is spectacular - a 270 year old Palace surrounded by gardens. We had time to explore and play a game of doubles chess with the oversized Indian chess set on the terrace. It’s funny how everyone’s characters come out in a chess game. Josh plays a swashbuckling attacking game, thinking a few moves ahead but trusting to his intellect to solve future problems. Campbell has ten different ideas that he thinks might be good and can’t decide between them. He is polite about other people’s ideas and very helpful moving the pieces around and out of the way. Flynn is careful, measured and slows the whole game down to a crawl while he carefully considers both his moves and the other side’s assessing all risks and generally getting it right. I’m not commenting on my chess game. 

We had a slight hiccup before dinner when Josh’s uni timetable booking window was unexpectedly opened. Technology issues were causing grief so we left him to it and ate a quick dinner in the hotel, hoping he could finish and join us (no). It’s now 5am and he has called the uni to resolve.

A day of Fort-itude

I had trouble sleeping this morning so I made a cup of tea and sat on our verandah in the dark, listening to the sounds of the morning - barking dogs, constant train whistles and the morning call to prayer. Relative to the chaos that is the day, it’s very quiet and peaceful. We had an excellent breakfast at the hotel, trying the Mung bean pancake (with coconut and honey), paratha with potato and paratha with paneer. Josh had pancakes and toast. The service is a little over the top, but very friendly and helpful.
We started the morning at the Mehrangarh Fort. First up was a zipline experience which was terrifying but spectacular. Campbell and I are both scared of heights and anything too sporty gives me performance anxiety. Of course I HAD to read the disclaimer form that I sign. After we harness up there was some waiting about, which gave me plenty of time to start imagining all the horrors listed in the disclaimer. The safety briefing and the practice session ramped my nerves up to fever pitch and I could barely breathe by the time we reached the first of six zip lines. I was rewarded for persevering - the scenery was spectacular and flying over the fort and the dam was exhilarating after the initial panic. Our group included the four of us and a young lawyer from Delhi. Since she was on her own we took photos on my camera for her, she took some good ones of us and we have swapped photos on What’s App. Her husband is in Australia right now covering the cricket and it was fun to make friends during our experience.
The pace ramped down a little with a tour of the fort afterwards. What a magnificent structure. It’s an architectural masterpiece, perched high up on the hill, following the cliff line with intricate carving and detail on every surface. The elephant howdahs and the palenquins were a highlight and a few of the ornate painted and decorated rooms (stained glass from Murano) were works of art. The boys flagged a bit as the tour was long with a LOT of detail but they politely listened and asked a few questions and did me proud.
We had a brief stop at the memorial where the cremated kings are housed. Our guide proudly explained that it is called the ‘Taj Mahal of Marwar’. It’s actually a small marble building, quite pretty, with photos of the kings. We were starving by now so our guide took us to an unpreposessing street frontage where we walked down a dark narrow passage way. I was dubious till we emerged into a lovely cool garden courtyard where we ate exceptional Indian for half the price of the hotel dinner last night. Josh was delighted to find chicken strips and chips on the menu. I can see these plus steamed rice will be his staple lunch and dinner diet for the next week.
After a brief downtime stop at the hotel, we ventured out for a walking tour of Jodhpur. Our guide had a stream of information to offer and would happily answer any question about any topic. It’s difficult to express in words the experience of this walk and the senses it engaged. The noise was dominant initially - the deafening sputter of the scooters and the Tuk Tuks, the yelled greetings and conversations that take place (no one seems to stand next to each other to chat) and the music that drifts out from houses and shops to provide a topnote. Next the visual - the colour of the saris and houses (havelli) is a backdrop to the most eclectic, fascinating place I have ever been. Narrow shops piled high with bags of spices; a dentist, providing services while sitting on the ground under a tree; tiny toddler girls with kohl outlined eyes; five older gentleman playing cards on a step with another six looking on and advising, and everywhere, curious but friendly smiles. There are hundreds of stray dogs - well fed and lazy. The physical aspects of the walk were tough. Firstly the ground is uneven and you have to watch where you step, which is difficult when there is so much to see. The main problem though is that both the narrow laneways and the wide squares are shared thoroughfares for walkers, scooters, Tuk tuks and cars. For me, who struggles to cross the road then there is no designated crossing, this was challenging. I winced and flinched and tucked my elbows in and prayed through the whole hour and a half. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world though. The shops in the market are for residents, not tourists so we couldn’t by so much as a postcard but I did manage to do some damage to my finances at a textile warehouse. We needed some downtime after our amazing day and ate at the hotel before an early night.

Jodhpur-fect

We had a relaxed breakfast in the club this morning being four of the only five guests there. This proved to be a good decision as downstairs there were hundreds of men in matching outfits attending a conference. Flynn and Campbell tested a range of the more exotic offerings - salted lassi with herbs was not a favourite but the roti was a hit. 

The service at the hotel was exceptional. The gentleman at the front desk personally escorted me on a five minute trek to the next door hotel where the auto teller was, waited for me and then escorted me back. Everyone is very interested in who we are and where we live and they always seem to have a relative in Australia somewhere. I am addressed as “ma’am” which throws me a little as I don’t realise someone is speaking to me till they’ve said it a couple of times. 

We travelled today by plane to Jodhpur to start our tour. Check in and security was slow but relatively organised. Everyone gets frisked. Ladies have a special line and we go into a little curtained booth to be frisked in private. The security attendant was particularly unhappy - she told me she was tired and there were too many ladies travelling that had to be felt (!). She couldn’t understand why all these ladies needed to travel. The boys said they could hear me laughing from outside the booth. 

By the time we were through it all they were hungry again (surprise!) and decided to sample the dubious delights of Indian KFC. They were most impressed with the pricing but after tasting a few different things, doubt that the 11 secret herbs and spices are the same ones that are used at home. Campbell inspected McDonalds and aims to try the Maharajah burger at some stage of the trip. There was a bit of hilarity when they went to the “Pepsi Black” shop to buy a Pepsi but discovered that they only sell water. I’ll include a photo. 

Our lunch box on the plane included a “peel and win” card. I peeled off the little gold sticker and voila, I won one of the gifts shown on the pamphlet. I was exited for about 20 seconds. Sadly, although the gift was free, winners were required to pay $22 towards taxes and other charges. Tempting as it was to get a ‘free’ belt-wallet, I passed on the opportunity. In a cruel trick, a wrapped sweet in the lunch box turned out to be some kind of tamarind thing that required my whole bottle of water and a bite of Josh’s Kit Kat to recover from. I was too obvious, and the rest of Team Starrett steered clear. 

Jodhpur is hard to describe. We rode through the city in a Tuk Tuk on arrival so we had an up close and personal view that has just enchanted me. The chaos and the colour and the vibrancy of it all is magical. Ladies in jewel toned saris carry sacks on their heads, children skip around between swerving scooters, mangy dogs are snoozing in any spot where they can avoid being stepped on and cows are ambling about. Our beautiful hotel, RAAS, is at the bottom of the cliff below the Mehrangarh fort. The lit up bulk of the fort at night is breathtaking. Our afternoon included a camel ride (very uncomfortable) and a visit with a weaver. He is the only adult english speaker in his village and runs a community rug weaving enterprise supported by the government. We drank tiny cups of smoky chai and firmly avoided succumbing to the pressure to buy a rug. Flagging a little, we ate dinner at the hotel. We sat outside on a lantern filled terrace, with a view up to the spotlit fort. There was a charcoal brazier next to us for warmth, and they offered blankets although it’s not too cold. It’s without a doubt the most spectacular location I have ever eaten at. That makes up for the average food - nothing wrong, but not up to the Indian standards set by some of our home favourites. Josh actually told me that my naan is better (!)

Early to bed for Team Starrett, although I’m writing this at 3am now, finding sleep elusive. 

A Passage to India

It’s midnight in Delhi and Team Starrett have checked into our hotel after a very full day of transit for our 2018 adventure. The four of us have 10 days in Northern India on a privately organised trip, complete with a 24/7 chauffeur and a guide during the day. Jason participated in his 1 in 3 years travel attendance in 2017, so is sitting this one out and enjoying Westcourt road’s peace and quiet for the duration.

 January is a new time of year for our annual trip. Travelling at this time of year provided a lovely leisurely lead up without the usual panicked shopping trip to procure socks and underwear when the boys inform me the night before that they have none. On a side note, this mystifies me every time - what have they been wearing?? Josh did discover that his jeans don’t fit well so he has borrowed Tarin’s (!) and seems quite happy with that.

We travelled the Brisbane/Singapore leg in business. I would rather use my points to upgrade on an overnight flight (that flatbed is super appealing). The boys however think that sleeping through a business class flight is a complete waste of time and all three were strong advocates for the upgrade on the way over. I went with the majority and thus we are travelling in style.

It was a treat to have real champagne, decent food and a comfy seat. Business class did not start off well however. We were lined up in the business lane to board and a Qantas lady (Josh tells me her names was Di) bustled over and said to me “This Lane is for business class you know”. I said “yes” and left it at that. Really! I know the boys’ new haircuts are a little dodgy, but they’re not THAT bad. We did get excellent service on the flight though and some special attention. I even managed to get a lovely dessert wine to drink with my vanilla bean panna cotta. In hindsight, it was a good call to fly business so thank you Starrett boys.

 It was a looong six hours to Delhi. We did have a ‘lost in translation’ moment when the meals arrived. The flight attendant offered chicken or fish and I asked for vegetarian. He said “Yes vegetarian we have vegetarian chicken or vegetarian fish”. I went with the “vegetarian chicken” which was a spicy chicken curry.

First impressions are a bit blurred due to fatigue and our limited path - literally airport to hotel only. The airport was very efficient with a heavy military presence. We were quite interested in the “deportation room” at the airport which had a number of people in it. Our greeter Shiv escorted us out to the waiting van where we were given Marigold lais. The air was thick with smoke which Shiv told us was from farmers burning the crop stubble. There was a cacophony of noise from the honking horns of the cars. Lots of crazy driving, stray dogs - that’s about all I’ve got at this stage. Security to get to the hotel was very high, with two gates and a stop to open the bonnet of the van and inspect the engine. Shiv and Depak, or driver, said “Security is very good” and nodded approvingly.

As usual, the boys have been absolute troopers - cheerful, friendly and interested. Bed now for a hopefully dreamless sleep and a recharge for tomorrow. I’ve included a photo of the marigold necklaces, and Campbell enjoying business class. You will see a small clip on koala in the photo. This is one of our two team mascots from work and is a compulsory travel accessory when one of the team travels. This one is Lu-Seal and her partner, who I believe is on a cruise, is Wingnut (for those not in the know, our two product groups are Fasteners and Seals.)

Castles and Kings

We walked in the front door at 9am and have been unpacking, washing, grazing and napping. Unpacking the suitcases always generates conversations about the trip and gives some closure and debrief time. We looked at the map and it turns our neither Josh nor Flynn new we went underwater on the Eurostar. Geography obviously not a strong point! I always forget what we purchased along the way and was surprised to discover that we are the proud owners of Buckingham palace and Eiffel Tower Christmas ornaments. This was a wonderful trip - the perfect mix of history, culture and adventure. I'm suppressing the urge to plan another trip as I'm not sure if the boys will still want to travel as a family in another few years. We will see....Ireland looks pretty fun, or Turkey, or Austria.....