Day 27 - the return journey - where is the taxi?

Greetings!

More of a tweet than a blog on this one as there are a couple of stopping points along the way - currently in Qatar and Doha airport (see pics) - the crossing point - 10.45am here, 7.45am in London and 1.15pm in India. Have been up since 3.30am Indian time!

Confused...?!

Only real hiccup of the whole trip was this morning when the taxi to take me from the hotel to the airport at 4am didn't arrive!

:(

Waited until 4.15am and then grabbed another taxi that happened to be standing outside the hotel (as you would).

Probably more for me (and you if interested - if not, skip to the bottom), but at the end of a holiday, myself and Julian do the "best and worst of the holiday", so here's mine.

Best Room - the Pal Haveli in Jodhpur - truly palatial.

Best Hotel - Hotel Lytton in Kolkata - just 5* hotel service from everybody from start to finish.

Best Meal - still remains with the Royal Teal at Udaipur - every mouthful a memory with my first Rajasthani Thali.

Best place to stay - interestingly, Delhi for it's vast variety of life all existing frenetically together.

Favourite place to stay - Kolkata - felt like home from home.

Most amazing place - Varanasi - just incredible.

Best sight / experience - numerous: Taj Mahal / Ganges at dawn in Varanasi / camel ride in Jaisalmer / Pink city observatory in Jaipur / Mother Teresa's tomb in Kolkata.

Biggest Surprise - observatory at Jaipur.

Worst Room - Dekeling hotel in Darjeeling - cold and soooo noisy outside. over promised / under delivered.

Worst Hotel - Dera Rawatser in Jaipur - noisy outside and inside.

Worst Meal - Jodhpur - second rajasthani thali - just cheap and nasty.

Worst Place to stay - Darjeeling - too much store set on it's views, which given the regular cloud and mist is a ticket to days of tedium.

Least favourite place to stay - Pushkar

Worst Sight - Pushkar and Kolkata's trunkless banyan tree.

Worst Surprise - Udaipur's pushy shopkeepers, Agra's negative undertones and Kolkata's trunkless banyan tree.


Have I had a great time in India? Absolutely.

Would I recommend India to others? Absolutely - depending on what they're looking for.

Would I come back to India?

Absolutely.

More later....

Later.

All flights on time and a lovely reunion at Heathrow with my other half!

Safely home.

Thanks for sharing and being alongside me on the journey. More appreciated than you could know.

Looking forward to seeing you all soon.

Lots of love

Mike xx

Day 26 - Back to Kolkata and one or two surprises for you!

So, when we last spoke, Mike was finding it easy to throw in the towel regarding Darjeeling - and rightly so.

Save for the view - there's not much there (well, OK, apart from the tea). And I've not seen a mountain view in all the time I've been there.

Over dinner last night, met a young Spanish couple from Barcelona. We got talking after the young lady had ordered lemon chicken (expecting lemon chicken), taken one bite and spat it out faster than I have ever seen anyone do such a manoeuvre, saying there was too much chilli in the chicken.

We all laughed and started chatting.

Anyway, it transpires we are staying in the same hotel, so I get invited back for drinks in their room.

Offered marijuana (declined), beer (accepted) and cigarettes (....Okay, accepted!) and had a great fun evening with them. It transpires that at 26 / 27 years of age, they have a wish-list of holiday destinations, which on inspection, myself and Julian have pretty much done. This therefore brought us closer together as travel buddies, exchanged emails and will possibly see them later in the year as they are going to be in London for a wedding. We'll see what happens.

Back in Kolkata, I get a text from the young artist who I bought a picture from last week, saying he's exhibiting in one of Kolkata's top art venues and if I want to come along - great.

Why wouldn't I?

And it was very swish! With 20 of the top young artists from Kolkata, all exhibiting in a great space, nibbles and drinks laid on, topped off with the Indian equivalent of David Hockney to open the exhibition.

And there was some good work. Though I cottoned on pretty quickly, when a couple of the artists seemed more keen than usual to sell their work to me - obviously word had got around and that indian entrepeneurialism was still beating strong!

You'll be glad to know I resisted!

So, am back in wonderful, civilised Kolkata, where I have the most luxurious, QUIET room, which I intend to enjoy before I have to get up at 3.30am to get a taxi at 4am to the airport (it's now 10.56pm).

So excuse me if I turn in for the last time during this trip on Indian soil...
Sleep well mes amis.

Sleep well.

xx

Room Without a View - Dekeling Hotel, Darjeeling

Why Buddhism's not for me (sorry) - 72 hours of non-stop chanting, bell ringing and candle lighting

Darjeeling tea-pickers at work on the "First Flush"

Kolkata - street life from the taxi on a regular Thursday at 5pm