Hello Family & Friends,
Hope this finds you well! Another update from the Desert for your perusal. We told you in our last blog that we’ve moved apartments. We are so happy we made this decision, and wish we had made the move earlier than we did.
Our first guests of 2010 were Mum & Dad (Foden). It was a flying visit based around the Major Golf event in Dubai (and some winter sun to get them away from the coldest, snowiest winter in the UK for the last 30 years)! We enjoyed a Thursday night brunch, with loads of food & wine. This was Graham’s first Brunch experience, needless to say, we all took full advantage of the all you can drink free flowing wine and had a terrific time.
The Dubai Desert Classic Golf Tournament was the one that was taking place, so we attended that on Friday - It was great to see the players up close and personal, while relaxing in the sun with beers in hand. (M&D also went the final day and had great seats for the 3 hole playoff in, which the fan’s favorite, Lee Westwood, lost out)! We were also lucky enough to get tickets to head up the Burj Khalifa (worlds tallest tower), and next to both of our offices. The fastest elevator in the world takes you up to the 124thfloor of the building at a speed of over 40 k/ph. This has since shut due to maintenance problems and no idea when it will be back up and running!
Mark & Graham played 2 rounds of golf at 2 of the nicest resorts in Dubai. Mark got taught a lesson on the 1st game, but ‘Team Foden’ wiped the floor with two friends in the 2nd game. Whilst the boys golfed, Trish & I had a Spa treatment at the Atlantis hotel and did some shopping. It was a great visit and we loved having them here as always & showing them our new apartment, the Burj Fountains and how Dubai has changed so much since their last visit!
We tried to catch up on sleep after our visitors, and a few days later we were at Ski Dubai – testing our gear and practicing our moves for our trip to Tignes, France. We go to Tignes for 9 days toward the end of March with 5 friends from Dubai, Amber is flying from Cali, and Andy & Karen are meeting us there from the UK.
Before we head to Tignes, we have another set of visitors, Ollie, Claire, Tim & Nat are coming over to stay with us for 6 days. They arrive tonight, so we have another busy week ahead of us. Really looking forward to their trip out here and to see the 4 of them. Two brunches are booked and a hangover (or two) is a certainty!
Other things we’ve been up to are: We’ve started a swimming regimen at our pool – trying a new form of exercise that is way more fun than running. Mark had his final game of the football season and “banged in 4 wonderful goals” to help the team finish top of the league. He’s also been Karting again, trying to get good times, but claiming the car was a slow one. I’ve taken up oil painting, creating some abstract art for our walls. I’ve also had my year review at work along with a bit of a pay rise – so am very happy about that.
I think that is our update for now.
Hope you are all well and would love to hear from you
Lots of Love,
M&E
xxxxx
see our photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2328894&id=6402232&l=794b24f6a7
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2328895&id=6402232&l=4a41cb352b
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2328896&id=6402232&l=48b1f444b1
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Monday, 24 May 2010
The Foden's Christmas Extravaganza.. (Feb 3, 2010)
First Blog of 2010..............
Hi Guys, We hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and that the New year is a prosperous and healthy one!
For the holidays, Mark and I flew back to the Manchester to be with family and friends for 12 days. This was the first time we had been back to cold and rainy Manchester since we’ve been in Dubai. We were very excited to see everyone and knew it would be a hectic but fun filled (and quite boozy holiday)!
We had booked a flight through Amsterdam airport, so had to fly in and out of 2 very icy and snowy airports. Honestly we didn’t think we’d make it there because of all the delays and cancelations due to the heaviest and most prolonged snowfall to hit the UK and Europe for over 30 years. We had even prepared ourselves for spending Christmas day in an airport. Anyway, after lots of worrying and an awful lot of fingers crossed, we luckily timed our flights to perfection and landed 10 minutes behind schedule!
We were greeted with the cold crisp air, lots of snow, a Full English Breakfast and the first glass of alcoholic liquid as we walked through the door in little old Poynton (Mark's home village). It was such a nice feeling to have the fresh cold air take our breath away, rather than the hot humid air which we left in the Desert.
Throughout our time in England, we had a very busy and packed schedule in order to spend time with all our family and friends that we have not seen while we’ve been away.
Christmas morning was just fabulous - snow in the back garden, a big beautiful tree with lots of pressies, champagne with the smell of the HUGE Roast Turkey cooking away in the oven. The Foden clan headed over at lunchtime to enjoy a perfect Christmas Feast (where even the Sprouts were eaten by Mark).
Nearly every evening consisted of a dinner & drinks party with family and friends at the Foden house. We also had two Brilliant nights out with all of our friends. It was just fantastic to see everyone! Andy & Karen were fabulous hosts on one of the nights out, where Secret Santa was held, and a very civilised start to the evening ended at 3am with security knocking on the door! It really was amazing to get such a large group out to see us and we were humbled by the effort that everyone made over the Christmas period to come and party with us!
On New years eve, we booked in at this Middle Eastern Restaurant (Graham wanted us to feel at home), where we had a sambuca soaked scrumptious lamb meal, a few bottles of wine, and toward the end of the evening we turned this fancy little restaurant into our own private dance party!
(you can see pictures of Christmas, Nights out, and NYE on these links:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2319909&id=6402232&l=726a67d5f0
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2320263&id=6402232&l=34e5f39478
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2320277&id=6402232&l=3d34f296df
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2323906&id=6402232&l=533ea8a72f)
After what could be classed as the one of the Best Christmas' Ever it was always going to be very difficult to return to the desert and to leave all the family & friends, but since we’ve been back we’ve been very busy. Straight back to work and then some exciting news for us the 1st week back...........
We had been getting quite frustrated with our apartment for a while now, and upon our return we bit the bullet and made the decision to move flats. We have been in our new apartment for 2 weeks now and absolutely love it. Our new residence is now in Jumeirah Beach Residence, which is just a few steps from the beach, we have a choice of over 40 swimming pools all within walking distance (and 3 that can be seen from the bedroom) we are very close to the bars and a few steps away from this great shopping and dining ‘walk.’ The apartment is much bigger, has a massive balcony, and is just great – we are so happy and it really has brought a new lease of life into our lives in the Desert!
We have another exciting week ahead of us, Graham & Trish are coming over to Dubai for a week get away from cold England. We’ll be heading to the Dubai Desert Classic and have lots more plans for a fun week with the Fodens.
We love and miss you all soo much, we hope you are able to write this year and keep us up to date with your lives in both the UK and the US.
Always remember Our doors are Always open and we would love to show you the (new) apartment.
M & E
Xxxx
Hi Guys, We hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and that the New year is a prosperous and healthy one!
For the holidays, Mark and I flew back to the Manchester to be with family and friends for 12 days. This was the first time we had been back to cold and rainy Manchester since we’ve been in Dubai. We were very excited to see everyone and knew it would be a hectic but fun filled (and quite boozy holiday)!
We had booked a flight through Amsterdam airport, so had to fly in and out of 2 very icy and snowy airports. Honestly we didn’t think we’d make it there because of all the delays and cancelations due to the heaviest and most prolonged snowfall to hit the UK and Europe for over 30 years. We had even prepared ourselves for spending Christmas day in an airport. Anyway, after lots of worrying and an awful lot of fingers crossed, we luckily timed our flights to perfection and landed 10 minutes behind schedule!
We were greeted with the cold crisp air, lots of snow, a Full English Breakfast and the first glass of alcoholic liquid as we walked through the door in little old Poynton (Mark's home village). It was such a nice feeling to have the fresh cold air take our breath away, rather than the hot humid air which we left in the Desert.
Throughout our time in England, we had a very busy and packed schedule in order to spend time with all our family and friends that we have not seen while we’ve been away.
Christmas morning was just fabulous - snow in the back garden, a big beautiful tree with lots of pressies, champagne with the smell of the HUGE Roast Turkey cooking away in the oven. The Foden clan headed over at lunchtime to enjoy a perfect Christmas Feast (where even the Sprouts were eaten by Mark).
Nearly every evening consisted of a dinner & drinks party with family and friends at the Foden house. We also had two Brilliant nights out with all of our friends. It was just fantastic to see everyone! Andy & Karen were fabulous hosts on one of the nights out, where Secret Santa was held, and a very civilised start to the evening ended at 3am with security knocking on the door! It really was amazing to get such a large group out to see us and we were humbled by the effort that everyone made over the Christmas period to come and party with us!
On New years eve, we booked in at this Middle Eastern Restaurant (Graham wanted us to feel at home), where we had a sambuca soaked scrumptious lamb meal, a few bottles of wine, and toward the end of the evening we turned this fancy little restaurant into our own private dance party!
(you can see pictures of Christmas, Nights out, and NYE on these links:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2319909&id=6402232&l=726a67d5f0
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2320263&id=6402232&l=34e5f39478
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2320277&id=6402232&l=3d34f296df
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2323906&id=6402232&l=533ea8a72f)
After what could be classed as the one of the Best Christmas' Ever it was always going to be very difficult to return to the desert and to leave all the family & friends, but since we’ve been back we’ve been very busy. Straight back to work and then some exciting news for us the 1st week back...........
We had been getting quite frustrated with our apartment for a while now, and upon our return we bit the bullet and made the decision to move flats. We have been in our new apartment for 2 weeks now and absolutely love it. Our new residence is now in Jumeirah Beach Residence, which is just a few steps from the beach, we have a choice of over 40 swimming pools all within walking distance (and 3 that can be seen from the bedroom) we are very close to the bars and a few steps away from this great shopping and dining ‘walk.’ The apartment is much bigger, has a massive balcony, and is just great – we are so happy and it really has brought a new lease of life into our lives in the Desert!
We have another exciting week ahead of us, Graham & Trish are coming over to Dubai for a week get away from cold England. We’ll be heading to the Dubai Desert Classic and have lots more plans for a fun week with the Fodens.
We love and miss you all soo much, we hope you are able to write this year and keep us up to date with your lives in both the UK and the US.
Always remember Our doors are Always open and we would love to show you the (new) apartment.
M & E
Xxxx
Blog Time again...........Camping in Oman (December 7, 2009)
Hellllllloooooooo family & friends,
So I hope you have forgiven me for the “too graphical” blog that I sent out last time with ‘The Train Incident’ in Delhi! The final result of the trip to India was that I lost 7lbs in 48 hours and Erin lost 6lbs. Not a healthy way to lose weight but it does confirm the rumours that people use a short break to India as an annual diet routine.
So we were back in Dubai, the summer weather had started to leave us, meaning that the 50 degrees heat was now becoming a constant 30 degrees and the humidity has decreased from 100% down to a normal feeling. This has meant that October and November have been fantastic for us both, with many activities, trips and events now taking place in the cooler temperatures (hence the lack of blog as we have just been so busy) – So this will probably be a first of a few blogs.
Our first weekend back from India was very busy, I was playing golf at the Montgomerie course. It was a fabulous course with some outrageous holes with a lot of water. ‘Team Manchester’ were playing ‘Team Celts’. The match finished tied after a pressure putt from me made par on the very tricky 18th hole! I’m really looking forward to giving my Dad a good game on there! Because I knew I was playing golf all day with the boys, I had surprised Erin for her Birthday (few days early) and treated her to a few treatments at a local spa in a nearby hotel. She was very relaxed and enjoyed it an awful lot. I think it now means that golf for me is now very expensive as I will now be sending Erin off to a spa as well! Hehe!
For Erin’s actual birthday, we finished work and went to the new Sega Zone at Dubai Mall. Its an indoor theme park with a few rides and roller coasters. Quite a different experience but we had lots of fun and then followed by a lovely meal at CPK (California Pizza Kitchen)! On the Thursday evening, we headed down to the Dubai Marina and to the Yacht Club for happy hour with a few friends. We made full use of the 2 for 1 offer and ended up drinking very tropical cocktails in Mai Tai with Alan Curbishly. Overall, a great Birthday week for Mrs Foden.
Whilst we have been in Dubai, a lot of the people we have spoken to have talked about Camping trips in the winter and how much they have previously enjoyed them, we wanted to get in on this and due to the fact that Erin had bought a 6 man tent off an expat leaving for a ridiculously cheap price, we planned a trip up to Oman with a few friends. We had lots of preparation to do before we left, shopping for camping equipment, packing and most importantly, testing the tent that we had bought to make sure that there were no problems with it. This doesn’t seem too much of a problem for most people, however, in our apartment since we don’t have a garden, this led to a very entertaining (but successful) 30 minutes of us putting up this massive six man tent in our not so big bedroom! Hilarious !
We left for Oman straight after work on Thursday night with the cars all packed with food, booze and firewood. It was a pleasant 3 hour drive from Dubai, including a stress free border crossing, then arriving at the beach, set up the campfire, bbq and tents and cracked on! A few beers, bottles of wine, a lot of tequila later, some comical ‘toileting’ and a small teabag incident, it was time to crash in our luxury tent for the night with airbed, pillows, duvet, etc (Erin was well prepared).
We were awake early on Friday morning, threw all the sausages on the bbq, packed up and left for a boat trip. As there was a group of 12 of us, we had hired a huge wooden traditional fishing boat called a Dhow with a driver for 6 hours, where we basically sailed around the Arabian gulf, Dolphin watching, fishing, snorkeling with some beautiful fish, a few cheeky beers and a lot of sunbathing / sleeping. It was a fantastic trip and very relaxing for everyone.
For the second night in Oman, we had planned on a trip up the Mussundam mountain range and set up camp there. This involved an hours drive up the rocky, dusty and very steep winding 'roads.' We were in a convoy of four big 4x4’s. The other 3 had been off-roading before, we however were ‘4x4 virgins’. As the roads got steeper and narrower, I changed the setting on the Range Rover to Mountain Mode and off we went. Erin was getting very quiet and a little nervous, I could tell this by the white knuckles that she was holding onto me with! I on the otherhand was having the time of my life. There was a real adrenaline rush as we were kicking up dust and stones as we powered up the tracks, carefully climbing over huge some rocks, listening to 'The Beast' use all its mechanical power to get us to the top.
The scenery was amazing with sheer vertical drops on one side and fascinating rock formations on the other. We just missed the sun setting from the top of the mountain, but headed back to a nice flat area (there wasn’t many) and once again set up camp and had a great night, pretty much like the night before but with an added ingredient of glow sticks, which seemed to keep everyone far too amused for hours!
The weather is now perfect in Dubai and over the first few months after Christmas we will defo be doing some more camping trips.
That’s enough for now, further blogs to follow shortly. Hope to hear from you guys soon.
Much Love
Mark & Erin
xxx
See some pics from my golfing day, Erin's Birthday, & our camping trip here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=325949&id=508925482&l=8d2d63805e
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=326498&id=508925482&l=b18e5848f8
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=327554&id=508925482&l=e157ac9bb6
So I hope you have forgiven me for the “too graphical” blog that I sent out last time with ‘The Train Incident’ in Delhi! The final result of the trip to India was that I lost 7lbs in 48 hours and Erin lost 6lbs. Not a healthy way to lose weight but it does confirm the rumours that people use a short break to India as an annual diet routine.
So we were back in Dubai, the summer weather had started to leave us, meaning that the 50 degrees heat was now becoming a constant 30 degrees and the humidity has decreased from 100% down to a normal feeling. This has meant that October and November have been fantastic for us both, with many activities, trips and events now taking place in the cooler temperatures (hence the lack of blog as we have just been so busy) – So this will probably be a first of a few blogs.
Our first weekend back from India was very busy, I was playing golf at the Montgomerie course. It was a fabulous course with some outrageous holes with a lot of water. ‘Team Manchester’ were playing ‘Team Celts’. The match finished tied after a pressure putt from me made par on the very tricky 18th hole! I’m really looking forward to giving my Dad a good game on there! Because I knew I was playing golf all day with the boys, I had surprised Erin for her Birthday (few days early) and treated her to a few treatments at a local spa in a nearby hotel. She was very relaxed and enjoyed it an awful lot. I think it now means that golf for me is now very expensive as I will now be sending Erin off to a spa as well! Hehe!
For Erin’s actual birthday, we finished work and went to the new Sega Zone at Dubai Mall. Its an indoor theme park with a few rides and roller coasters. Quite a different experience but we had lots of fun and then followed by a lovely meal at CPK (California Pizza Kitchen)! On the Thursday evening, we headed down to the Dubai Marina and to the Yacht Club for happy hour with a few friends. We made full use of the 2 for 1 offer and ended up drinking very tropical cocktails in Mai Tai with Alan Curbishly. Overall, a great Birthday week for Mrs Foden.
Whilst we have been in Dubai, a lot of the people we have spoken to have talked about Camping trips in the winter and how much they have previously enjoyed them, we wanted to get in on this and due to the fact that Erin had bought a 6 man tent off an expat leaving for a ridiculously cheap price, we planned a trip up to Oman with a few friends. We had lots of preparation to do before we left, shopping for camping equipment, packing and most importantly, testing the tent that we had bought to make sure that there were no problems with it. This doesn’t seem too much of a problem for most people, however, in our apartment since we don’t have a garden, this led to a very entertaining (but successful) 30 minutes of us putting up this massive six man tent in our not so big bedroom! Hilarious !
We left for Oman straight after work on Thursday night with the cars all packed with food, booze and firewood. It was a pleasant 3 hour drive from Dubai, including a stress free border crossing, then arriving at the beach, set up the campfire, bbq and tents and cracked on! A few beers, bottles of wine, a lot of tequila later, some comical ‘toileting’ and a small teabag incident, it was time to crash in our luxury tent for the night with airbed, pillows, duvet, etc (Erin was well prepared).
We were awake early on Friday morning, threw all the sausages on the bbq, packed up and left for a boat trip. As there was a group of 12 of us, we had hired a huge wooden traditional fishing boat called a Dhow with a driver for 6 hours, where we basically sailed around the Arabian gulf, Dolphin watching, fishing, snorkeling with some beautiful fish, a few cheeky beers and a lot of sunbathing / sleeping. It was a fantastic trip and very relaxing for everyone.
For the second night in Oman, we had planned on a trip up the Mussundam mountain range and set up camp there. This involved an hours drive up the rocky, dusty and very steep winding 'roads.' We were in a convoy of four big 4x4’s. The other 3 had been off-roading before, we however were ‘4x4 virgins’. As the roads got steeper and narrower, I changed the setting on the Range Rover to Mountain Mode and off we went. Erin was getting very quiet and a little nervous, I could tell this by the white knuckles that she was holding onto me with! I on the otherhand was having the time of my life. There was a real adrenaline rush as we were kicking up dust and stones as we powered up the tracks, carefully climbing over huge some rocks, listening to 'The Beast' use all its mechanical power to get us to the top.
The scenery was amazing with sheer vertical drops on one side and fascinating rock formations on the other. We just missed the sun setting from the top of the mountain, but headed back to a nice flat area (there wasn’t many) and once again set up camp and had a great night, pretty much like the night before but with an added ingredient of glow sticks, which seemed to keep everyone far too amused for hours!
The weather is now perfect in Dubai and over the first few months after Christmas we will defo be doing some more camping trips.
That’s enough for now, further blogs to follow shortly. Hope to hear from you guys soon.
Much Love
Mark & Erin
xxx
See some pics from my golfing day, Erin's Birthday, & our camping trip here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=325949&id=508925482&l=8d2d63805e
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=326498&id=508925482&l=b18e5848f8
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=327554&id=508925482&l=e157ac9bb6
Friday, 6 November 2009
India Blog - Delhi Belly Edition
Day 2 in India started even earlier than Day 1. We were up, dressed and out of the hotel by 5.15am to catch the train from Delhi to Agra for a full day’s site seeing with the highlight being the wonderful Taj Mahal.
We arrived at the very busy train station, no problem and boarded the train, it was actually a very civilized train journey as we had joked about whether or not we would be sitting on the roof for the 2 hour journey!
It was also quite an eye-opening journey down to Agra. We passed by many of the slums, similar to those we had seen on Slumdog Millionaire. It was very sad to see that people actually do live in these conditions, on top of rubbish dumps, with no clean water, nothing more than a cardboard box as a house and then the toilets…….well, they were just non existent – people taking Number 1s and 2s in the streets or just next to their cardboard box! Very sad.
When we arrived in Agra, we were met at the station by hundreds of taxi and rickshaw drivers all fighting for our business. They even had police with wooden battens to keep the drivers back until we had passed a certain area. We had planned to hire a rickshaw driver for the day, but a taxi driver ended up winning our business by hassling very well and dropping his prices for us. He offered us air conditioning and he actually spoke pretty good English.
He suggested we head to the Taj 1st as it was perfect time of day, before the heat and before the crowds! We took his advice and off we went. Once we got there and saw it, it was amazing, as it’s something you have seen in photos, movies or in books, but to see it in person was fantastic and beautiful! We took lots of photos (including the standard one of “picking up the Taj”). Then we took a tour around the tomb inside the center of the Taj (which took 21 years to build), it was a very peaceful place and after the tour we actually just laid on the marble flooring and chilled for about an hour!
After the Taj we visited Agra Fort, a few shops (where the driver was on commission – quite annoying)! We then visited the baby Taj (another tomb, which the original Taj was based on), and then back to watch the sunset over the Taj whilst enjoying a beer or two.
At 7pm we headed back to the train station. We were exhausted from a full day of sight seeing, and the stomach was starting to feel a little dodgy, (now for the messy bit)! I hope you’re not eating!
About 30 minutes into the journey I was sweating and had Goosebumps all over and needed to go to the bathroom. HOWEVER, those who haven’t been to India before will not fully appreciate the meaning of ‘Indian bathroom’ (especially on a train)! To put in bluntly……..A Hole in the Floor, where you are supposed to squat and hover whilst pooping. Bearing in mind this was a bumpy moving train, you can imagine that not everyone was quite so accurate and there was poop all over the place (not even to mention the smell)!! Well, anything that I had eaten the last 2 days just bounced and I was instantly sick.
Feeling surprisingly better, I headed back to the seats. Another 30 minutes had passed and ‘that feeling’ arrived again. However, this time I had to go (nr 2). So I braced myself knowing it wasn’t going to be pretty, started to crouch down only to realize the door wouldn’t lock properly, so I’m squatting over this hole in the ground, balancing on one leg, whilst holding the door shut with my other leg – I wont go into too much more detail but wow, I was in a bad place right there and then!! (Sorry of this is Too Much Information)!!! I’m sure you can all picture the image!
After the horrifics of the train, we finally got back to the hotel. By then both of us were affected and we were taking it in turns to run to and from the hotel bathroom (where we had an actual toilet) for the rest of the night. Sunday was a complete right off, we only left the room, to go to an Irish bar, to watch the Manchester Derby (Awesome Match)! But we couldn’t even stomach water or plain fries!
On Monday we were unable to leave the room until we had to check out, and we went straight to the airport and managed to get an early flight back to Dubai!
We didn’t eat anything between Saturday night and Tuesday night, it was a very unpleasant illness and we have no idea what caused it as we were trying so hard to be careful with what we ate! We can 100% say we experienced the true meaning of Delhi Belly.
To sum up our short trip:
The poverty in India is on a massive scale, from the thousands of people homeless and the children begging in Delhi to the Slums on the outskirts of the cities. It made us realize how lucky we are but also how we take things like clean water and a roof over our head for granted! We had chosen India as we wanted to experience the different culture and see the sites, which we can definitely say we saw.
Despite the illness, it was a very enjoyable trip, amazing to see the Taj and tick it off the list.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2291001&id=6402232&l=ffbba30598
Would be great to hear from you all and let us know how you getting on.
Speak soon
Much Love
M & E
xxx
We arrived at the very busy train station, no problem and boarded the train, it was actually a very civilized train journey as we had joked about whether or not we would be sitting on the roof for the 2 hour journey!
It was also quite an eye-opening journey down to Agra. We passed by many of the slums, similar to those we had seen on Slumdog Millionaire. It was very sad to see that people actually do live in these conditions, on top of rubbish dumps, with no clean water, nothing more than a cardboard box as a house and then the toilets…….well, they were just non existent – people taking Number 1s and 2s in the streets or just next to their cardboard box! Very sad.
When we arrived in Agra, we were met at the station by hundreds of taxi and rickshaw drivers all fighting for our business. They even had police with wooden battens to keep the drivers back until we had passed a certain area. We had planned to hire a rickshaw driver for the day, but a taxi driver ended up winning our business by hassling very well and dropping his prices for us. He offered us air conditioning and he actually spoke pretty good English.
He suggested we head to the Taj 1st as it was perfect time of day, before the heat and before the crowds! We took his advice and off we went. Once we got there and saw it, it was amazing, as it’s something you have seen in photos, movies or in books, but to see it in person was fantastic and beautiful! We took lots of photos (including the standard one of “picking up the Taj”). Then we took a tour around the tomb inside the center of the Taj (which took 21 years to build), it was a very peaceful place and after the tour we actually just laid on the marble flooring and chilled for about an hour!
After the Taj we visited Agra Fort, a few shops (where the driver was on commission – quite annoying)! We then visited the baby Taj (another tomb, which the original Taj was based on), and then back to watch the sunset over the Taj whilst enjoying a beer or two.
At 7pm we headed back to the train station. We were exhausted from a full day of sight seeing, and the stomach was starting to feel a little dodgy, (now for the messy bit)! I hope you’re not eating!
About 30 minutes into the journey I was sweating and had Goosebumps all over and needed to go to the bathroom. HOWEVER, those who haven’t been to India before will not fully appreciate the meaning of ‘Indian bathroom’ (especially on a train)! To put in bluntly……..A Hole in the Floor, where you are supposed to squat and hover whilst pooping. Bearing in mind this was a bumpy moving train, you can imagine that not everyone was quite so accurate and there was poop all over the place (not even to mention the smell)!! Well, anything that I had eaten the last 2 days just bounced and I was instantly sick.
Feeling surprisingly better, I headed back to the seats. Another 30 minutes had passed and ‘that feeling’ arrived again. However, this time I had to go (nr 2). So I braced myself knowing it wasn’t going to be pretty, started to crouch down only to realize the door wouldn’t lock properly, so I’m squatting over this hole in the ground, balancing on one leg, whilst holding the door shut with my other leg – I wont go into too much more detail but wow, I was in a bad place right there and then!! (Sorry of this is Too Much Information)!!! I’m sure you can all picture the image!
After the horrifics of the train, we finally got back to the hotel. By then both of us were affected and we were taking it in turns to run to and from the hotel bathroom (where we had an actual toilet) for the rest of the night. Sunday was a complete right off, we only left the room, to go to an Irish bar, to watch the Manchester Derby (Awesome Match)! But we couldn’t even stomach water or plain fries!
On Monday we were unable to leave the room until we had to check out, and we went straight to the airport and managed to get an early flight back to Dubai!
We didn’t eat anything between Saturday night and Tuesday night, it was a very unpleasant illness and we have no idea what caused it as we were trying so hard to be careful with what we ate! We can 100% say we experienced the true meaning of Delhi Belly.
To sum up our short trip:
The poverty in India is on a massive scale, from the thousands of people homeless and the children begging in Delhi to the Slums on the outskirts of the cities. It made us realize how lucky we are but also how we take things like clean water and a roof over our head for granted! We had chosen India as we wanted to experience the different culture and see the sites, which we can definitely say we saw.
Despite the illness, it was a very enjoyable trip, amazing to see the Taj and tick it off the list.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2291001&id=6402232&l=ffbba30598
Would be great to hear from you all and let us know how you getting on.
Speak soon
Much Love
M & E
xxx
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