Jophur & Udapuir

Days 9-12
Our final day in Jaisalmer was spent sitting around waiting for our evening train to depart to Jodhpur. It was incredibility hot, too hot for any sort of sight seeing and to be honest apart from the fort, the desert, and the stunning havelis there didn't seem to a lot else we could do there anyway.
Our train pulled into Jodphur's hectic station which I now accept is the norm for India, and our guesthouse pickup was there to met us in the hustle and quickly whizzed us to the homestay. Our hosts were Mr and Mrs Singh, an affluent couple living in a large house in Jodphur suburbs with no less than 8 staff to run the place for the 2 of them and their guests (we were the only guests). Over the course of our stay we discovered that Mr Singh was a 6th cousin once removed ( I think) from the current Maharaja (Indian King) of Jodphur and attended the wedding of the Maharaja's son a few years previous. Like myself he also was educated by the Irish Christian Brothers in a boarding school in Mount Abu, a hill station in Rajasthan along with other privileged Indian boys. At school, when learning about the Christian Brother's work in other countries I imagined (I am pretty sure it was implied by the school though!) that the Brother's did missionary work in countries like India, educating the street children and helping out the poor of India's slums. But, here they were running boarding schools for the rich and making a tidy profit no doubt!
We took a tour of the Mehrangarh Fort and the Umaid Bhavan Palace, better know as Jodphur Palace. The fort was built by the Rathore clan in the 15th century for extra security and what a natural fortress this is. Rising up above the Old City on a protruding rock, my wife commented that it is very similar set up to Edinburgh castle, it reminded me of something from Indiana Jones the Temple of Doom! The Rathores are a clan of Rajputs and their Maharaja (Indian King) had to be a skilled diplomat to retain his position and hold all of the clans together. This diplomacy stood them in good stead when the Moghuls came around and they ensured that they were well in with the rulers of India's Premier empire by marrying off their princesses to Moghul aristocracy and exchanging gifts with their Muslim overlords. Indeed by the time Shah Jahan came around he was actually 3/4 Rajput! However Shah Jahan's son, Aurangzeb was more of a zealot and he loathed the Rathores and their Hindu faith and he made war with them. However the Rathore's were slippy customers and after initially fleeing their fort they were soon back in their fortress in Jodphur after Aruangzeb's death. Aurangzeb reign signalled the end of the Moghul dominance in India and they were never as great again. The Rathores on the other hand were smart enough to befriend the British when the time came and are still there to this day. While Indra Ghandi ensured that none of India's Maharajas have any political power anymore they are still wealthy beyond belief as our visit to the palace provides ample evidence off this.

The information at Jodphur Palace told us that it was built in the 1930's as part of a "Famine Relief Program" for Jodphur. I smirked at this, as there was similar programs to build a series of follys around Ireland during the potato famine. Looking at it from a 21st century point of view, while we acknowledge that  providing work, pay and food to starving thousands of people is keeping them alive, at the end of day it is taking advantage of their misfortune. However I don't have any doubt that the older sites we have visited were built using questionable labour methods, its just that they weren't documented at the time. In any case the palace itself is a magnificent building sitting atop a hill on the outskirts of the city. Unfortunately we could only see a tiny part of this building along with a collection of some of the Maharaja's vintage car collection including 3 RollsRoyce. Indeed as we were leaving there was a 1947 Buick was  pulling out of the elite hotel which encompasses most of the palace, which will set you back a cool $800 a night.

That evening we had dinner and a discussion on tourism and drinking culture with the Singh's friends and work colleagues. The food was fantastic, easily the best we have had to date in India. It was also interesting to have a conversation with some Indians who weren't hell bent on trying to flog us something or rip us off .
The next day we were up early for a bus ride to the lake city of Udapuir. We were told that the journey would take six or six and a half hours , maybe seven. A full eight hours later we trundled our way into Udapuir after a journey where the distance to Udapuir seemed to be increasing! Occasionally we would catch a glimpse of sign that said Udapuir 32km and 10minutes up the road we would see another sign that said Udapuir  35km. Our conclusion was that the bus driver and conductor were scouring the hinterlands of Udapuir looking for business. In any case it left us thoroughly frustrated and in bad humour by the time we we arrived in the ciy itself. A downpour as we were arriving only added to our anger and after checking in and a brief nap we set about exploring Udapuir in our foul mood. A young Indian fellow almost felt the full wrath of my frustration when he cut it in front of my wife at a turnstile for pedestrians. I had went through the turnstile when my wife who was following exclaimed, "Excuse Me!" I turned around, saw that this fellow had cut in front of her, saw red, and decided to push the turnstile back on him. My wife then entered the turnstile and went through. I passed on some words of wisdom to the young chap that I often received from my father "you would need to learn some manners!". To my surprise he was incredibly obliging through the whole episode, he seemed to accept that he was in the wrong and that I was just righting that wrong. It was either that or he seen that I had the red mist and was in no mood for compromise. He walked on past us without a murmur, like the whole thing hadn't happened!
Udapuir is known as the city of lakes and is in a wonderful setting. The restaurants and hotels make sure that everyone knows that the James Bond film Octopussy was filmed here. The film was centered around the beautiful Lake Palace in Lake Pichola, which looks like it is floating in the lake. The city has also many other temples, ghats and palaces which all combine to make the city wonderfully picturesque. After witnessing some sort of ceremony in the Jagdish Mandir Temple to Vishnu (the Hindu preserver God) we headed to Udapuir Palace, which is home of yet another Rajput clan the Sisodas. The Sisodas ruled over the Kingdown of Meewar and the Palace was the seat of their power. Unlike their Rajput neighbours the Rathores were in no mood for compromise with the Mogul's, British or anyone else that came their way. They didn't exchange gifts, marry off thir princesses or anything else, they always stood their ground as Hindu Maharaja never compromising their Kingdom beliefs or bloodline. This has gained them respect throughout India and they are now known as the Maharana (King of Kings). However from what I could gather the histroy seems to be slighly skewed from the information I read on the placards in the Palace. For example they fought the Moghuls in a huge battle in the 16th century, which according to the Palace the Sisodas won the battle in a convincing route. But they then had to made a tactical retreat, give up their palace in Udapuir and decided to make a new capital elsewhere! Sounds like a defeat to me but sure they are entitled to interpret their own history especially as they are now back in Udapuir and still going strong.
A boat trip around the lake and the relaxed mood of Udapuir has lifted our spirits significantly and we feel that we are back on top of India again. However we now head back into the "Golden Triangle" tomorrow where the hawkers, touts and scammers are more extreme. A shop keeper told us today that it should be known as the "Bermuda Triangle" because of the amount of money that goes missing there! However we feel that we are battle hardened now and with a few Hindi phrases such as "chello" (Go away) we will be taking no prisoners!

Advice we received from the Californian couple in Jaisamler told us to head to the Taj Mahal before the weekend and its closed on Fridays. So we have decided to end our tour of Rajasthan by skipping Jaipur, and we will head straight to Agra on a train tonight. We will arrive there tomorrow, so hopefully we will be able to see a few of the "other" sights in Agra such as the Fort (yes another one!) before hitting the Taj at sunrise on Thursday.
Word has also reached me that Mayo have shocked Dublin in the All-Ireland football semi final to set the most unlikely meeting possible with Donegal in the final. I am slighly annoyed that I most likely won't be able to see this match however I am glad that an "unlikely" team will be taking the Sam Maguire cup home this year. Though I don't like the Donegal style of play it would be difficult for me not to will them on to win their 2nd title but then Mayo have had a long wait with many disappointments. Still there is a few weeks yet to decide mt allegiance!
     

Jaisalmer & the Thar Desert

Days 5-8
As if to give us one last sting in the tail as we were leaving the heavens opened once more in Delhi as we made our way to Old Delhi train station. In the Delhi metro entrance we waited for the rain to subside a little before making the short dash to the station. Old Delhi train station in the monsoon is an experience and a half! Pools of water lie everywhere inside and out of the station, getting through the security is a frantic mucky mess and confirming the platform your train will be pulling into is nearly an impossibility. Our train was the overnight express to Jaisalmer, the famous fort city in the Thar desert, and of course in keeping with the station's fashion of confusion our train pulled into the opposite side of the platform. However plenty of people were on hand to let us know this but our previous days experience left us doubtful as to whether to believe them or not, but we decided that we better check the train out anyway. Sure enough our names were posted on the first carriage we checked out! A change in fortune perhaps?

We were seated in 2nd class air conditioned sleeper class, quite comfortable. In our booth we also had a young French couple sitting opposite. The train pulled out pretty much on time and we were soon clunking our way out of Delhi, this city that we at first quite liked but had quickly grown to loathe. Delhi's track side view was a hotchpotch of very poor shanty towns, people and pigs seemed to crowd this squalor. I am a huge fan of railway journeys, there is room to stretch and walk, they are relatively smooth, you can sleep and you get to see the country from a completely different perspective than from the road. This was no different for me, although the dusk quickly pulled in the darkness and there was no view to be had. But at least we had a decent night's sleep ahead of us. I slept as soundly as I have in this country to date but my wife's sleep as well as our French companions was fitful at best. We awoke, (or in my wife's case arose!) to a changed landscape outside, the country side was arid, a dry scrub land dotted with flat roofed dwellings. A step outside the train onto one of our platforms told me that it was hot.. real hot.. and it was only 9am.

We glided our way through this terrain for the next 2 hours before the fort of Jaisalmer came into view, it looked as stereotypical desert fort as you imagine, like a medieval fort of some Arabian Kingdom. After checking into our hotel we went to investigate it. The fort itself is a living fort with 100's maybe 1000's living on the inside, so life continues here in amongst the turrets and battlements as it has done for a 1000 years. The Rajputs are a collection of Rajasthani tribes and they built the fort in the 12th century from dry stone. No mortar can be seen apart from the recent additions and repairs to the fort. This method of construction along with the recently piped water into the fort causing a very Irish problem, rising damp, are causing conservationists some concern as to how the fort can be maintained in its original state. So here lies the dilemma, do you maintain this magnificent fort as a museum with very basic living conditions for much of its inhabitants inside or do you allow the inhabitants to live in the fort and continue to live there maintaining the fort as they see fit as they have done for centuries. It's a problem that India's massive population is putting on many historic sites across India. A happy medium must be there somewhere to maintain this as a living fort but in a manner that will maintain the fort in its original state.

Next up was the Havelis, which are palaces build by the traders in the 19th century. They are absolutely amazing pieces of stone masonry extremely fine detail chiseled out of the soft sandstone, how they managed it without breaking the stone or even survived the weathering is a mystery. And yes everything you see in the photos is made from stone ...except the pigeon!

Jaisalmer itself its a fairly small city and as a result is a lot more relaxed than Delhi, very few people hassling and those that do are quite mannerly. The place has considerably lowered our stress levels and we are able to amble about the city quite relaxed instead of being constantly on edge. The most stressful thing in Jaisalmer has to be the cows, which rule the roost in this town. They roam about the narrow streets yielding for neither man nor machine. Going around a corner I came face to face with a cow going the opposite direction. Now I am used to cows going around me when we cross paths, but this cow wasn't for shifting and she swung her head as if indicating that she wanted past on my inside. Aware of cultural differences and resisting my farmer's urge to wave at the animal and shout "Chay" at the beast and I begrudgingly stood aside as it walked on. In my eyes the ultimate resting place for cattle is on our plate in some shape or form, and the lack of respect that Indian cows observe for this destiny and the butting of my wife's leg by a calf has not endeared me to these skinny rumped bovines.

Cows aside Jaisalmer is definitely a very nice place to hang out, and when here an overnight camel safari is the thing to do. The first rain in 2 years to the Thar desert put us off the overnight safari and instead we decided to go for a sunset trip instead. We set off through the desert in the jeep stopping off at a few desert villages along the way before arriving at our camels for our trek to the sand dunes and the sunset. Camels definitely aren't the most comfortable thing to sit on and I was quite glad that our journey didn't extend into another day as by the time we arrived at the dunes my bum ached and still does. A Californian couple were already at the dunes and they were spending their first of 2 nights in the desert. Rather them than us as the lightning in the distance indicated that rain was on the way, that and the full moon meant that a sky full of stars would be very unlikely. The dunes were picture perfect and the the rising full moon opposite the bloody sunset was a surreal experience.
 

 

We were soon on our way back to Jaisalmer and the end to a magnificent day was crowned with a controversy over a dead sheep  and a dripping ceiling in our room. We were relocated to a hotter room and a fitful nights sleep followed. This is India after all... nothings perfect!

We also learnt that this unlikely rain in Jaisalmer translated into serious flooding elsewhere in Rajasthan, where 36 people were killed in Jaipur which we hope to visit within the next week. Tomorrow we continue on to by train to another desert fort city, Jodphur.

Delhi 2

Days 3-5
Well these have been an interesting few days around Delhi. I think its fair to say that our view of Delhi has come completely full circle, as the negative now seem to be outweighing the positives in India's capital.
But I will start where I left off from my last post and that was with Delhi's metro system. Just as we heard, it was clean, efficient and unbelievably cheap! It is a total contrast to the streets outside, and outside New Delhi metro station is interesting to say the least. It is an open latrine and the smell of urine was so fierce I could still smell it a few hours later as I was having my dinner, my poor wife almost threw up on the spot. Luckily I didn't see anyone going for the long toilet or evidence of that but I believe it happens as well. In any case, after we passed through the metal detectors the metro was a sea of calm, it was cool and no street vendors, perhaps this was the oasis that Connaught Place was supposed to be. Both of our tickets cost 32rupees for 2 (40pence) and as we entered the slick train  we found that the cabins were tall and air-conditioned, although the holding straps were a bit low for my liking. Twelve smooth stops later and we arrived at Qutub Minar, a UNESCO world heritage site and the headquarters of the Delhi Sultnate. The Sultnate was a group of sucessive rulers and dynasties of Delhi, but more significantly they were the first Muslim rulers. For some reason that I dont quite understand, history deems the Mughals a different era to the Sulnate but I guess it was their grip and consolidation of Northern India that deemed them more significant. Indeed the remnants of the Mughal era which was shorter are more impressive and influential than the Sultnate. I guess the Sultnate dynasties were too busy being overrun by each other to do make any lasting contribution to history. However with all that said they did manage to build a huge tower called the Qutub Minar, which although heavily restored is still mightily impressive. It was almost identical to my mind's depiction of the Tower of Babel in the Bible, which as all you good Bible readers will know was knocked down by God, and just like the Tower of Babel, Qutub Minar got damaged from a few rattles from lightning over the centuries meaning that the latest bout of restoring is just another repair job maintaining the tower. The rest of the site is extensive and worth a walk around but in truth there is nothing more interesting that the Qutub Minar.

Most of the tourists there were Indians and they found us very interesting, the stares you can get used to but the requests for photographs were fine at first because we could ask for one back but it starting to get annoying and during our visit to our next site, the Lotus Temple were we had to draw the line. The Lotus temple was inspired by my birth and construction began immediately the next day! It was complete in 1986 and its funcky Lotus design is not dis-similar to the other 20th century architecture designs such as as the Sydney Opera house, It reminded me of a giant plastic flower and wasn't overly fussed on it but then I found out that it is actually made from marble, not plastic. In any case it seemed like we were becoming the main attraction as the requests for photographs became too much and we had to start refusing people. I think it was bothering me more than my wife as she seemed to be the main attraction, I was actually excluded from a few photographs! I got suspicious (No! not jealous!) so we decided to limit the photographs.

The photographs were a small problem though in comparison to the touts and scammers. Every Tuktuk driver seems intent on scamming you out of your cash, as well as all the street vendors. I will go through our attempt to buy a train ticket yesterday at the train station. We decided we wanted to take the train to the desert state of Rajastan and we imagined that it was just a case of going up to the train station and buying a ticket, so naively we tried to do this. We walked up to what we though was the station entrance and a chap who appeared to be helping people put their luggage through the security scanner, stops us and asked us what we wanted, we told the helpful fellow our purpose and he starting telling us about the Government Tourist office in Connaught Place He then hailed us a tuktuk which he said was a government fare of 20rupees. Now I was a bit suspicious as I had heard about the scams offices in Connaught Place. But this guys story seemed to check out as he had a map showing the office and he seemed to be a worker there. When we thanked him he replied "No No its my duty" so he seemed a genuine enough. We arrived at Connaught Place and were welcomed in by the people that work there. This set off alarm bells in my head, why were we being welcomed into a Government office? We went up stairs and there was a rather smooth charming advisor there telling us about all the scams that people had suffered, this only confirmed my suspicions and from then on it was just a case to see if he actually could get us train tickets, which of course he could do, but it was along with a package. We told him thanks but no thanks, which he made it quite difficult to do and used our cheap ride to Connaght Place as an opportunity to get some lunch and do some clothes shopping. After doing a bit of research that afternoon about the scams we found that there is a tourist office upstairs in the train station, but the scammers and touts will do everything in their power to stop you from getting there, but it is there! So we set off again to try and find the tourist office and despite almost being deflected for a second time we found the office, bought our tickets and we finally had our way out of Delhi.
Another scam we suffered yesterday was a lump of shit suddenly appearing on my shoe just as there was a shoe cleaner around! After cleaning it off he tried to charge me 1500rupees for the pleasure. He got 30, which was still too much in hindsight. Hindsight is a great thing with these scams but the scammers are very convincing and they have backup people all around, "Yes it was one of these birds that shit" I heard from a "passer-by" but in hindsight it wasn't, it was a lump of cow dung that he must have had in his bag, nice! As a farmer's son this was an elementary error I know, but in fairness the cow dung as with almost everything else is a little different in India!
Back on the sightseeing front we went to the Presidents Palace and India gate yesterday, which I mightily impressed with. The two famous structures are build at either end of the Rajpath, which is a wide tree boulevard, with various regal looking parks government buildings on each side built on a slowing rising hill with India Gate at the bottom and the Palace at the top. Its almost identical to the Champs d'Elyesee in Paris and it surely must have been the inspiration for the English Architect Edwin Lutyen. However once again the main site was a side story to something else, as a cleanup was underway after protests regarding the "Coalgate" (yes I thought it was about toothpaste too!) scandal, which is all over the news and is threatening to bring down the Government

Today we have checked out of our hotel and we are spending the afternoon in the backerpacker's bazaar of Pharaganj market, getting getting lunch, writing blogs and waiting to take our first trip on the famous Indian Railway system, which will be a night train to Rajastan.

Delhi

Day1-2
We arrived in Delhi 2 nights ago and we have been savouring its delights and dangers along with catching up on some much needed sleep since then. Arriving at the airport I was surprised to find that the terminal was new, clean and efficient like any generic international airport. Baggage, immigration and customs were a doddle and our pick up driver was easily found. Soon off through the morning rain of South Delhi in our Tata "mini minivan". While the road behaviour was the chaotic stereotype that us westerners imagine, the cars, road conditions and surroundings were not. The cars while small were mostly new/fresh Tatas, Hyundai's and Suzuki's, and of course there was old motorbikes and autorickshaws (tuktuks) but there was also a healthy smattering of 4x4s and luxury cars. The roads were wide and well marked (not that anyone was playing a blind bit of difference to the markings) and they lay within wide tree lined boulevards. As we got to the centre of the city this started to change, we went off the main roads and onto the side roads which became narrower, the footpath started to blend into the street and we were soon making our way to our hotel in between pedestrians, bullock carts, human carts!, rickshaws and motorbikes honking the whole time to make our presence felt. We got to the hotel which is a good hotel in the backpackers ghetto, the Pahargani area. Hotel Krishna is situated on the Arakasan Road which gets flooded in ankle deep water when the heavens open but it soon drains and the relentless flow of traffic and people begins again.
 On our first night we went for a quick walk into Connaught Place which is colonial era built circle which was built to be a supposed oasis of calm in the city. We never really found that oasis though and after a dinner which we both agreed was at too expensive of a level to be continuing with, we made our way back to the hotel via a frantic tuktuk ride and a long slumber to shake off the jet leg awaited.
Our first impressions of India were positive, this was an area of much concern to me. Especially with my wife as although I had warned her how crazy it would be, there was a worry she would not like it. You hear of many people freaking out on arriving in Delhi and getting the next plane out and I had vision of my wife going "What the hell is this place? Where have you taken me? Get me outta here" . To a lesser extent I had concerns about myself doing the same thing, as I came close to it when I arrived in Kathmandu as a naive 20year old. But I was a kid on my own back then and I had no one to point out how crazy the whole thing was and I was quite happy as made our through Delhi's bustle even slightly indifferent as it was probably not as bad as expectation. My wife too was enjoying the experience and although the sight of the street children and the incessant honking were bugging her, the frantic street life in Delhi was an experience she was enjoying.

In saying that yesterday we visited Old Delhi and that seems to have curbed her enthusiasm a little. Old Delhi is the area of the city which was build up and around the Red Fort and Jamil Mashid (Mosque). Both of which were build by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (also builder of the Taj Mahal in Agra). It is a maze of side streets and bazaars, a hive of activity and is enough to test anyones patience and any claustrophobic tendencies will surely be exposed. Jamil Mashid is a beautiful imposing mosque build high up above Old Delhi. It can accommodate 10 000 of Delhi's Muslims whose numbers continue to dwindle after the horrors of Indian Partition but those that remain hold on firmly in Old Delhi which was the aristocratic stronghold prior to the Indian mutiny/rebellion in 1857. The views after a sweaty climb which my wife wisely declined to the top of the South Minaret are fantastic however clouds from the impending downpour obscured the view, but even on good day I would imagine the pollution haze would limit visibility.

After taking shelter in the mosques cloisters from the downpour which flooded and muckied everything, our next destination was the Red Fort which we entered through the imposing Lahore Gate which unfortunately along with the huge wall was part of was the highlight of the Fort. The apartments, palaces etc inside the fort are impressive however the wall and gates of the fort do suggest a much grander inside. However according to William Dalyrmple's book City of Djinns much of the buildings inside the Fort were destroyed after the mutiny/rebellion of 1857.

After a walk through the old souks, the monsoon muckied streets were starting to drag our feet and we grabbed lunch at one of Old Delhi's most famous eateries Karim's and we were off to the calm of the hotel and a good shower and nap we were as good as new ready to face Delhi's streets once more. But after Old Delhi alleyways our previously chaotic streets seemed too calm and peaceful only 2 horns sounding at once instead of 20!

So today we head south in Delhi away from the busy centre via the new metro for a few more historic site visits. I have heard many good reports about the metro clean, efficient, cheap, sounds like the tube .... no wait opposite of the tube  

A week to Monsoon Mania

A week to go.....
My darling wife and I have decided to up sticks and leave County Tyrone for the sunny shores of Southern California. And since emigrating obviously involves quitting your job, clearing out your house and all the other annoying things involved in a move like this we decided that it would be the perfect time to spend a bit of time travelling in Asia before settling down to life in SoCal. Our provisional plan is to travel to India for 2 months before making our way to South East Asia for a further 5 weeks but adaptability is essential when travelling and those plans may change.
That brings me around to this blog, why am I writing it? Considering that I failed English literature at GCSEs and most of this blog will be off the cuff I definitely don't see myself as the next Jack Kerouac or Michael Palin so you may have to forgive me for the boring writing and bad grammar!  Rather the main purpose of this blog is to simply let as many of our family and friends know about as much of our trip details as possible, as opposed to sending individual small emails. In saying that I am still making it public just in case I'm recognised by the big publishers and they will pay me to travel the world and write travel blogs! However it will be anonymous, but those of you who know us will know who we are.
At the moment I am sitting here in our house which will have a new occupant next month, and nursing a hangover from our work leaving-do last night (thanks for all the kind words and more importantly the craic last night folks!). I'm surrounded by Gumtree's latest additions, shipping boxes and a various assortment of rubbish that builds up in your house over a few years due to hoarding for various unlikely scenarios that you imagine could just be around the corner but never seem to arrive. However a few visits from gumtree bargain hunters, to the local skip, and to various charity shops have meant that we are on top of our clutter. However we still have lots to do before the take off  on Thursday and that along leaving family, friends and colleagues has been to the forefront of our minds forcing the mighty subcontinent back into the little nooks and crannies in our heads.
Your guaranteed a reaction when you tell someone that you are going to India. But my wife summed it up perfectly from another blog that she reads. That is people have one of two reactions, there is the negative and the positive. The negative of course is INDIA? Why do you want to go there? I heard you cant even drink the water there? Did you know there is dead bodies in the street and people piss on them?.... The list goes on. The positive of course is INDIA! That's fantastic! I hear its an amazing place! Oh I would love to go there! Your going to have a fantastic time... There is always a reaction, no one ever seems to say soberly, "India oh right have a nice time then".
So then, why India? After the travelling that I had done before I met my wife in various places in Asia and Africa I was always looking to make time for a extended bit of travelling in India. I always thought that I would spend about 6 months travelling around India giving me as much time as required to see the whole country. Unfortunately I never seemed to have eked out any time for extended travel anywhere in the past 10 years, this time around for various reasons we have given ourselves 3 months, which as I have said isn't what I expected but its not bad. And it should be adequate time to see and do everything that we want.
 Hopefully I get a few more spare moments during the week to go into what we want to see and do when we get there and more detailed reasons as to why we are travelling to Asia in the first place, but to do that I will have to get rid of this bric-a-brac. Anyone need a printer, rug or DVD player?