India Vol 1: First Time Around

  Today is Divali, and we had plenty planned. First we took an Uber to the Bangalore city palace. The trip advisor comments lead us to believe we’d be in and out quickly as it was apparently underwhelming, but we actually found it interesting to see this heavy Scottish influence over traditional Indian architecture and how they blended it, as best they could when oppressed of course. It was eye opening to see elephant feet turned into foot stools and illustrations of jungle creatures tamed into tiny zoo spaces. But that’s the history, unfortunately. We then went to 100 foot road to have lunch at a beautiful insta-worthy cafe called The Kind Roastery. They had some cafe favourites but with Indian spices throughout making for a really special treat. We took a walk through the shops and bought a few items before heading back to the hotel for a swim. Later in the afternoon we took a walk to the park, but it was pretty dilapidated and full of mosquitoes so we just turned it into a walk ...

  This morning we returned to the “good” buffet at the Leela Palace. Not that the ITC Jaipur was bad, it just wasn’t ask good as the Leela. Even Ethan, the spoiled boy that he is, commented that the pancakes weren’t as fluffy there! Now, let me explain Bangalore 28 degrees. It’s very different to Sydney 28 which is hot and dry, or Bangkok 28 which is boiling and sweaty. It’s just actually a pleasant temperature with mild cloud cover, some smog, and lots of trees keeping it all very shady. Locally people don’t really wear shorts, so we’ve adopted this mostly, and have grown accustomed to wearing pants. Unheard of in Sydney at this degrees! But here - fine. We took an Uber to the national gallery which was probably the most underwhelming gallery we’ve seen. There was one exhibition that was fine, showing paintings endorsed by Mahatma Ghandi of villagers going about their day. Say, a woman pounding rice, an ear cleaner (profession), and a person on a toilet. The main gallery was like ...

  I hate travel days. Anyone that’s ever travelled for work knows how dull airports are, and taxis, and security checkpoints. They stress me out. So on the way to the airport to head back to Bangalore we stopped at a pottery studio and watched how the pieces were made and bought a couple of things. Then, it was just the mundane of getting through security, waiting at the gate, catching the little bus, and then takeoff, flying and landing. The attendants said Ethan was a well mannered passenger and made him a little card thanking him for the trip. They asked to take a photo with him and gave him a candy bar. So sweet! ,One of my travel requirements was that upon each landing we have the hotel organise a transport. It bothers me having to land and then figure out a taxi or train or whatever. But to have someone stand there with your name fills me with confidence. The Leela, however, charged us about $200 to get to the hotel last time, and since we’d successfully navigated Ubers durin...

Today we took a car to Galta Ji temple, better known as the monkey temple about a half an hour out of the city. It had a beautiful waterfall built inside of the temple walls, where the bathing pavillion was up above on sort of a dam like pool, and then the water run off below was for the monkeys. They were pretty cute, and one scared Darcy a little by jumping toward him as he tried to take a pic of her baby. But in comparison, the area was not as populated as the Thailand monkey temples. Still, an interesting part of our journey. We asked our driver to drop us off at Hawa Mahal, the famous pink palace you may have seen in photos. Although, it’s not a palace at all, merely a facade of one. We had a TikTok recommendation to go to Tattoo cafe across the road and the view is perfection! We ordered some drinks and a bite to eat and soaked in the sight with the blaring and incessant honking in the background. Once we were done, we took a brief walk in the markets again before heading back to...

  Today we went to the Pink City to visit the Royal Palace. We spent a bit of money to get a tour guide who took us into the palace grounds. There, we saw one of the outdoor meeting rooms for dignitaries, decorated in the traditional terracotta which is more widely seen as the “pink” of the Pink City. Then, we walked into the dancing square where the very famous peacock gate is. Turns out, there are four gates, each decorated for a season - the peacock representing spring. We took an elevator up to the rooftop where the ruby stones and gold plated room is, where the king hosts prayers once a year for his family and we could sit where he sits while the staff took instagram professional photos one after another. And then like 15 pics more for good luck. I feel like they’ve done this before. We saw the famous blue room, and also a silver plated room fit for winter as it keeps warmer than the rest of the palace. The silver glitters and it is said the queen of the time liked starlight, ...

  This morning we had our buffet breakfast (love a buffet) before taking an Uber to Amer Fort, the largest and most popular in Jaipur. Upon arrival, you can see all the way up to the massive stone buildings, and tour guides haggle to get you to use them. We bypassed them and also past the people riding elephants up the very steep hill to the entrance to the fort. See images, it is amazing and my descriptions may not do it justice. We took photos and wandered in and out of the corridors exploring. A person approaches us and took us up to the highest point, beyond a broken wooden door that looked ominous. Were we being robbed? No, but he did ask for some cash for showing us a fairly unremarkable viewpoint. Meh, we can afford the like $4aud so why not.  When we left the fort we went to the road where Ubers can come to pick up passengers but it was gridlocked. So we followed it down past basically parked cars filled with steaming hot tourists. And down, and down, and down. We’d wa...

This morning the jet lag was still apparent, but it was only a 4:30 call time, so not so bad to chill out for an hour or two until breakfast. We smashed through a bunch of plates and Darcy and Ethan met some engineers & pilots from NASA while scoping out the pastries. Our morning trip was for a walk around the burb that our hotel is in and a stop at a local rug/carpet shop. The salesman was a pro, selling us on the magic carpet: silk that is light when seen from one side and dark when viewed from the other. We liked a bunch of them and he put the hard sell on us. Apparently their 75% off signs were coming down tonight and they wouldn’t be that cheap again tomorrow! What are the chances! ! I said to the guy, “but yknow, if we did come back tomorrow I’m sure you’d take care of us”… Darcy glared. The salesman sheepishly conceded, “yes, but they won’t be the price I can tell you that!”. I was not convinced. For me, a rug salesman, car salesman, vacuum salesman, they’re all the same guy...

  Last year when we went to Thailand we recalled that on the first day after landing the jet lag would mean that Ethan would be up at about 7:30am… Sydney time, which is about 3am in Bangalore. And that’s exactly what happened. But we’d planned for it, so it wasn’t as excruciating as you’d think. We watched tv and played iPad & games until about 6am and then took a walk through the hotel grounds to eat up some time. The pink palace is a huge U shape built around lush green trees and a bright blue pool. The gentle hum of car horns and traffic can be heard, even in the early hours of the morning.  We headed down for breakfast, because we love a hotel breakfast, and sampled dishes from around the world. But little Ethan just had waffles and pancakes with chocolate sauce and chocolate dots because why not! Afterwards we went straight to the pool and had a swim, but it was a little chilly both in & out so we didn’t stay long. We decided to go to the Museum of Art and Photog...

 Hello all and welcome back to my travel blog!  The year is 2024 and this is our first trip of many to India. The plan is to tour Bangalore, Jaipur and Goa, and I look forward to bringing you on our journey. In the lead up to this trip, we've had a few ups & downs, and since we booked this trip a good 6 months ago, I feel like we've been talking about it for so long you might be thinking "oh just go already!". Since booking, we've sold our house in Cambridge St and just received the keys to our new house in Denison St.  We said a sad goodbye to Aunty Pusspa who passed after a short sickness into his older age. We've been living with Bronwyn for 9 weeks now while we've been moving which has been really lovely, but we're all ready for us to get out and get going! We were surprised with a lovely points upgrade to Business Class so got up early and checked ourselves in at the airport. What a joy to not have to use my height to make a last minute sepera...