Hanoi

I’m a millionaire!

Well in Vietnamese Dong, basically £1 equals VD33,000, talk about confusing.  We arrived at the airport and used the ATM to get some cash for the taxi.  We’d pre-booked a hotel on the internet but the lady at the tourist info desk said she would have got it much cheaper – lesson to learn there.  Anyway the hotel is great, excellent wifi too.

Hanoi is just amazing, clean, organised but in a chaotic sort of way, very efficient.  I was told that 50% of the population are under 25 and it feels about right.  The Vietnamese are all small, slim, neat, good looking, and seem to smile a lot.  There are not a lot of old buildings even though we are in the old quarter but the streets are narrow and full of fascination.

We went to the night market after we arrived, good to see that markets the world over are full of mobile phone cases and other tat! At the end of the market was a series of stall called the “Night Kitchen” here they sort out a bowl of stock and give you various bits to cook yourself at the table in the stock.

Bob and Jan’s tenner went out for a drink too

Slept late the following morning a combination of jet lag and Carole has a stinking cold to boot.  Got out just for wander, pictures below of the city and some of the snacks we tried.

We fell across the national water pupet theatre and had to go and see it.  Sort of weird and beguiling at the same time, definitely something see if you come here, the pupets are operated by rods under the water and the traditional musicians play along.  Apparently it started in the flooded paddy fields centuries ago and is now recognised by UNESCO as a cultural highlight.

As a coffee nerd I had to try the Vietnamese coffee – pictured below, tastes of wood and something else I can’t describe with a hint of coffee and if you ask for it with milk they put a dollop of condensed milk in the bottom which comes as a bit of a surprise to say the least.  Luckily the trendy bars have Illy coffee.

Off to Ha Long bay tomorrow – the bay with all the vertically sided islands, apparently on of the natural wonders of the world.  We’ve arranged to stop on a boat for a night at an island.

Unlikely to be wifi but will catch up later.

Taj Mahal and Return to Delhi

The Taj Mahal and return to Dehli

We’d sorted out a local guide, Ali, to take us to the Taj Mahal – good move he sorted out the tickets lessened the queuing and gave a really good tour of the Taj Mahal, his only fault was a love of taking cheesy photos…

What can you say about the Taj, it is simply beautiful. 

It has also got to be the most photographed building in the world. Built as a memorial, taking 22 years to build, the quality of the craftsmanship is astonishing.  All of the script you can see is not paint but inlaid stone, so well done you can’t see the joints.  Its also very clever, the 4 minarets are angled outwards by 5 degrees so that if there is an earthquake they will fall away from the tomb.  The writings slowly get bigger as they goes up the height of the walls so that it appears to be the same size from ground level.

We got there at 6am to miss the crowds and it was a really good plan by the time we left there were long queues to get in.  That said inside in never really felt overcrowded, apparently on a busy day 25000 people go through the gates.  Not a bad earner at 750INR each.  This is the only place we’ve been to so far where we saw many foreign tourists, everywhere else has been filled with Indian visitors.  I like the fact that they are very proud of their country and its history.  We’d had a quick look at Gandhi mausoleum yesterday and it was packed with Indians still paying their respects to the hero of their nation.

The drive back to Delhi was just as chaotic, our driver, Hannish, got stranded in the middle of a junction and had to pay a 100INF fine for his troubles, a bit unfair in the circumstances.

 He stopped to buy us some fruit on the roadside we think it was called unrood – or something similar.  The seller cut it and filled the cuts with salt which promptly burnt our lips – obviously an acquired taste.

After 5 hours on the road we got back to Delhi and asked Hanish, to take us to a good restaurant somewhere in New Delhi before the airport – He took us to a KFC…. It was packed with Indians.  This is the posh part of Delhi but still as chaotic and untidy as the rest.

Delhi airport is an oasis of calm and efficiency, such a contrast to the rest of the country.

Sights and sounds of India, well the sound has got to be the car horn, closely followed by the moped horn, lorry horn….  As far as sights are concerned there is so much beauty and so much squalor where ever you look I think the only thing you can say is that there will be a contrast in every direction you look in.  The other thing is that there are so many people you are never alone, never out of sight of another person.  Even looking across fields, look again and you will see people toiling somewhere.

Long trip ahead – overnight to Singapore and then transfer on to the plane to Hanoi – after today we are going to be knackered.

More cheese and a cracking traffic cops hat..

Agra and the Red Fort

Agra is the where the Taj Mahal is located and we were determined to see it despite the short stop in India.

After speaking to the tour company from yesterday we cancelled a nights stay in Dehli and arranged for a driver to take us to Agra to see the Red Fort and the Taj, stop in a hotel in Agra and then be taken to the airport for our flight to Hanoi tomorrow.

After getting into the wrong cab and nearly taken straight to the airport we found our driver Hannish and set off.  The traffic has just got to be seen to be believed – Hannish said “no left no right no start no stop no rules”

How it all works is just amazing, the pictures don’t do justice to the chaos. It took us nearly 5 hours to go 200km and that was thought to be pretty good going.

On the way we saw more elephants,  camels, donkeys, water buffalo and ox  all harnessed to some sort of cart or other,  and cows and black pigs just wandering across the main roads.  There are lots of black eagles in the area too.  Will try and get more photos but it’s a bit tricky whilst in a car.

We stopped for some street food for breakfast on the side of the road – everything cooked on the stone oven you can see.

Not too sure what we ordered but it tasted pretty good and cost peanuts.

The Red Fort is the second big draw to Agra after the Taj, built about 1500. I think the story goes that the king had three wives, one Christian, one Muslim and one Hindi, oh and 16 unofficial wives.

The official Christian wife had 14 kids, don’t know how many his unofficial ones had; busy man but you can see why he had to build such a big fort.  Although to be fair it was extended a bit by his successors.  He even built a prison solely for women for when they got a bit rowdy. This is the view from one of the wives apartments – the area with the trees in it was used for keeping tigers and elephants in – just in case someone was lucky and stupid enough to climb the outer walls and get past the guards.

Our first view of the Taj through the smog from the fort – going there tomorrow at 0600 to catch the sunrise. 

Going to be a long day tomorrow as it’s an overnight flight again after we get back to Dehli from Agra and the Taj.

Delhi and the sights around

Having difficulty getting wifi so will udate whenever we can.
Easy, uneventful flight, as daylight came up the plane swung south and we could see the Himalayas in the distance, covered in snow.  A bit earlier we’d checked the flight map on the screen and realised that we were flying over Afghanistan – strange landscape and very barren.

Exiting the airport was easy and we even found a taxi, shame he got lost on the way to the hotel and had to keep asking the locals.  The driving was absolute chaos; on a 5 lane highway I counted 8 lines of cars, and then squeezed in between were the bikes and pedal rickshaws.

The hotel I picked off the internet is best described as different but OK, just.  The chaos on the roads just keeps on into the side streets and pavements.  The pavements are so blocked with cars that people walk in between the logjam of cars.

The hotel “boy” escorted down us an alleyway to a restaurant and we entered a world of 1970s British Indian restaurants.  Great food, very different to the Indians we’re used to.  The bill for the whole meal was 310Ir about £3.90.

Our friends Bob and Jan gave us a tenner to have a drink somewhere in the world but we’ve decided to take the tenner for a drink around the world instead…

Our phones aren’t working at the moment so somewhat incommunicado.

We’ve taken a tour around Dehli by coach and were rushed around so many temples and monuments  that they have blurred a bit but photos below give some idea.  It made us realise that getting around this city without local help would be very, very difficult

India Gate – India’s most famous war memorial.

Qutub Minnar temples and memorials.

                                  The Lotus temple of the Baha’I religion – stunning structure.

The images below are all from the Red Fort at Dehli – apparently there are a few around India.  This one was enormous the circular walls must have been a couple of kilometres long.

                                                       These two are from inside the fort.

Below is a street scene outside the hotel

The men on the bamboo are building a marquee at the Lotus temple for a big gathering, the poles were swaying as the moved about, fantastic skill and fearless.

We were sat on the coach when Carole out of the window to see an elephant looking in at her as it walked past – mixing it with the traffic, nobody batted an eyelid around us.

                           The police transport drivers  at home have nothing to complain about!

We already seen some amazing stuff in Delhi; what is striking is the grinding poverty next to sumptuous palaces although everyone seems to get along despite the contrasts, the only bad manners we’ve seen was from a European – not British thank heavens.

We had a coffee in the café at the hotel and got speaking to a retired history professor from Dehli and his American based sister. They said that Indians don’t talk about the poverty it’s almost ignored and the Indians are too proud to accept any criticism on the subject from outsiders.  He said there was now a barrier and that the poorer majority didn’t have much hope of improving their conditions despite the economic strength of India.

We're Off

 

Well after our recent tragedy and hassles we finally managed to set off.  The delay in flying means that we are really only having a long weekend in India but hey, we’re going.

As a treat to ourselves we booked first class train tickets to London, but due to the byzantine pricing system they were cheaper than “standard” tickets.  So we glided effortlessly down to London after Chris dropped us of at the station – thanks Chris.  We’d booked two nights in  a 4 star hotel in London – again on the cheap as it was a new hotel and they needed guinea pigs – fantastic, best spar and Jacuzzi we’ve been ever been in – the jets were so powerful Carole couldn’t keep her backside on the seat!

We did the tourist thing all day Monday – the Eye, The Thames Clippers, Covert Garden, HofP, etc.  great places; I can now see why foreign tourists rate the city.

We went to see the show “We will rock you” – top night out – knew all the words and sang along – pity the guy in front of me.  At the cocktail bar Carole practised on the Singapore Slings – just for comparison later on of course.

One final hitch at the airport – our flight broker hadn’t told Virgin that we’d changed the dates… Several ‘phone calls and anxious moments later and we were allowed on the plane.

Portimao Refit

We've left the boat in Portimao to be refitted and made all shiny - simple things, simple minds, etc.

Looking good so far. We've a few more things to do but I fell off my bike and that stopped me doing much. With the trip around the world starting fairly soon we've decided to leave the boat where it is until we get back and then gets lots of use out of it in 2012.

Next entries should be from India!

End of the first part of our cruise

The last few days of the cruise were spent doing jobs on the boat generally relaxing. The work on the boat extension continues. Although we've altered the design a little and this means we've to order more zips (now 32 in total) and so will end up leaving the boat before its finished.

Carole went foraging on the beach for coquinas - small cockles - she got enough for a pork and cockle stew - a local classic.

After a cloudy few days, summer arrived and the weather became settled and warm. Cloudless days and evenings warm enough to sit out in wearing just a T-shirt. We went walking in the countryside outside of Ayamonte to a property that a friend is thinking of buying. The wild flowers were stunning.

We've now had to pack the boat up and head off home - both got work (what is that dirty word!)to go to. But we're back in May to sail the boat to Portimao - probably, boats and plans are not a good mix. There we'll lift the boat out of the water and do some maintenance and let the boat have a good dry out before we start on the next stage of our cruise later in the year. Next updates should be at the beginning of May.

Regards

Dave and Carole