India (Part 1)

Blog time again – it’s been rather busy and lots of stuff has been happening, however we will stick to the rule of less than 750 words…..




After the Birthday Iftar at the Beach next to the Burj, we were both back busy at work but still enjoying the earlier finishes from work, due to Ramadan. The weekends came and went very quickly, however we did manage to get to a fancy dress party at one of the lads flats. I was bad taste Hawaiian Beach Surfer Dude and Erin was a Manchester United Player complete with Shinpads! The party had full DJ and sound system, UV lights and strobe lights, a bath literally full of beer cans, far too many people and an endless supply of Jelly Vodka! Great & successful party, rather tipsy & work the next day was quite painful for me! (See some pics at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2290586&id=6402232&l=5f964a6c32)


Towards the middle of September, The Holy Month of Ramadan was drawing to a close and we had planned a long weekend away to India. When the Muslims celebrate the end of the Holy Month, we get 3 days off work!


Erin worked very hard for about 3 weeks, looking into every bit of detail about India, specifically Delhi & Agra – The Lonely Planet was a very helpful guide which explained about all the various scams that happen on a regular basis where the tourists are targeted! She had also spoke to Ashley, who had visited a few months earlier on her travels and her biggest piece of advice was ‘always carry some toilet paper with you.’ Erin, using all her research and advice had done the packing into two very small suitcases (very impressive for Erin to travel so lightly) and after an early dart from work we were back in the airport lounge bar (yep, you guessed it, Bloody Mary and a Pint of Magners)!


We arrived in Delhi after a nice stress free flight and were taken to our hotel.


1st Impression of Delhi was the insane Driving!!!! No actual lanes whatsoever in the road, some places it was a bumpy track/dirt road with 5 or 6 cars and rickshaws (see pic: http://www.nriinformation.com/images/autorickshaw.jpg) trying to get from 6 “lanes” onto roundabouts. Every single driver used their horns:


To let someone know they were passing,

To let other road users they behind them,

Used their horn instead of an indicator,

To test their horn was still working (after they used it less than a minute ago)

Just because they wanted to.


It was crazy and we experienced this the entire time we were in India. It now explains why some of the driving in Dubai is so bad, i.e. all the Indians previous driving 'experience' in their homeland!


We got an early night once we arrived at the hotel. The next morning we had a personal driver come and pick us up to take us around the sights of Delhi. During this busy day we visited many temples, war memorial monuments, tombs, mosques and forts all with amazing history and some of the most detailed construction that we have ever seen (you can see all in the link to our pics below) We enjoyed a fantastic Indian Curry with all the trimmings (including large Kingfisher Beers) at a traditional restaurant for lunch.


For me the most memorable part of the day was when we swapped the car for a bicycle rickshaw (see: http://www.tropicalisland.de/india/uttar_pradesh/varanasi/images/VNS%20Varanasi%20or%20Benares%20-%20women%20in%20cycle-rickshaw%203008x2000.jpg) and were chauffeured through the crazy traffic (at rush hour) to the largest Mosque in India.


With India being a very religious country and the Muslim and Hindu religions were celebrating annual festivals, it was a fascinating time to visit the mosque. We arrived just before prayer time for the Muslims and were covered up by some rather sexy outfits (again see pic link at bottom)! We walked around the plaza of the mosque, and we were the centre of attention of over 500 people. The attention was different to the vast number of scammers and beggars that we had battled through for the majority of the day. We were actually been idolized with small Indian children just following us and wanting to be by our side and asking for photos of us. It was an amazing experience that will never be forgotten and as I mentioned in the photograph (on facebook) it felt like we were Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, famous.
First set of India Pics: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2290984&id=6402232&l=f0bd86a8c7





Ok, so I managed to ramble on more than I thought just about day 1 and already over 700. Day two Blog will be following soon (and be prepared to hear about Dehli Belly)!!





Lots of Love



Mr & Mrs Foden



xxx