Another trip waiting to be published for about 1 month (and there are more waiting). This time we went to the south of England.
Our destination was Isle of Wight as main attraction for Saturday and nearby coast up to Portland for Sunday. The weather was beautiful for whole Saturday.
Day after visiting Windsor Castle we have been to Leeds Castle in Kent. It is rather small castle, but very nice. It has beautiful garden and cages with exotic birds.
I have finally confirmed myself there that shining sun really makes difference in photos. Simply, it started as cloudy day leading to sombre photos. I still liked them (I like melancholic photos :-) ), but we decided to wait till sun comes out. It took us about 2 hours since we noticed patches of blue sky on north east. It was huge difference! Now, my photos started to look more like postcards (see? this is what happens when nobody is complimenting me :-) )
We have been to Windsor 3 weeks ago, but I was not able to publish pictures sooner. We wanted to visit Windsor Castle for long time, but we have always put it aside. Finally we decided to go, seeing nice weather in April.
This post is not about any trip, but it still means a lot for me. This is the first time my photos got published! :-)
I was contacted by Timberbush Tours last summer because they liked my photos on blog I have taken during our trip in Scotland with them. Of course I was delighted when they asked if they could use my photos in their brochures for next year. Not only because it is my first opportunity to get published (without much effort), but also because I really like how Timberbush Tours are doing their business. So it is twice as much honour for me. Several months passed and I am holding 2 nice brochures in my hands now (trips from Edinburgh and Glasgow). Only 5 of photos are mine, but that's more than I would believe if somebody told me during those trips :-)
Tuesday 11th November is our last day for exploration of India. Tomorrow we are heading home, but we are going to enjoy Golden Temple again. Yesterday evening we have spent there about one hour, but we will have more time for it today...
We woke up at 5:45 as we wanted to see sun rise. We showered, had breakfast, I have helped Zuzka to wear saree and we were ready to go. Receptionist looked puzzled when he saw us. We left our shoes in locker again, washed hands and feet and went in. It was different with light. It was still foggy, but less than yesterday. Hundreds of people were there like previous evening. We went next to "bridge" to see sunrise behind temple. In the beginning we were standing, but bit later somebody told us to sit down. So we sat down on marble floor. I was looking around to see if people are using their cameras or not. We were told yesterday that it was not allowed to use camera inside temple or photographing Book, but we were not sure about its usage on encircling walkway. Typical mixed messages - we could see people taking pictures yesterday, even one Sikh told Zuzka where she should go to take better photo when they moved The Holy Book to other building for night.
Monday 10th of November we woke up at 7:30. We went to hostel roof for breakfast, after it we packed ourselves and went to reception to pay for night. Price was 702, but somehow I could not find 2 rupees so manager said it was OK :-) No problem, we will return here next day, so I will repay my dept then ;-)
We plan to see New Delhi today and then we are flying to Amritsar afternoon. Many places are closed in New Delhi, because it is Monday so we do not have many stops today. Our first stop was Humayun's Tomb. We needed rickshaw so we planned to find some in Main Bazaar. But the first rickshaw driver said it will be better to take taxi. The 2nd one was willing to take us there, but insisted on 150 Rs, so we agreed. Whole ride was quite long, but probably not worth of 150 Rs. New Delhi was full of smog, visibility was not good, smell of traffic terrible.
Sunday 9th November. We slept rather well, it was quiet place again even it looked like we found another place with festival yesterday. We woke up at 6:30 to see sunrise - it would be big mistake to miss sunrise in Jodhpur.
Our plan for that day was to see Mehrangarh Fort and nothing else as our flight to New Delhi was moved 3 hours sooner so we needed to finish at noon. It is pity, Jodhpur has many places to offer to visitors. But what could we expect if we had only one day for every place?
Saturday 8th November we woke up rather tired. We could hear life on streets for most of the night and it was really hot in our room because we closed windows as anti mosquito precaution (we had seen some in the evening). As I opened balcony a fresh cool air went inside. Well, we probably made mistake...
A group of tourists stopped in from of our hotel, directly below me and their guide explained something to them. After some time another bunch of tourists repeated the same ritual so it could not be coincidence. Mental note - I need to take photo from outside regardless of crammed space. Hotel owner asked when our train is running - at 16:00. "You can leave your luggage here and return at about 2pm. Then you can refresh yourself shortly in your room before you leave." Thank you very much, we really appreciate this possibility :-) This would never happen in normal hotel with normal hotel manager...
Friday 7th November. We woke up in train, it was uneventful night, it passed very well. We had still 6 hours to go and based on arrival to the last station we are late about 1 hour. Not so bad.
I took Azithromycin, followed by stomach ache (I confirmed it was caused by that pill just recently). We stayed in lying position for a few hours more, because nobody asked us to sit properly. I started to like these trains. They are cheaper than hostel, they just miss hot water :-) As time passes it is getting hot, because air conditioning is not on. We are passing through dessert for last several hours so there is no wonder it is getting hotter. Eventually I got up and sat opposite to my berth as Zuzka was still sleeping and it was not possible to sit when middle berth is deployed in AC/3. After some time a guy came, wanting to sell accommodation, but I got rid of him as soon as I realized that (described in the first part of series thoroughly). To my big surprise we arrived to Jaisalmer on time. I do not get it how they do that :-)
Thursday 6th November. I am tired as we get up. My throat is still sore. OK I am going to start with Azithromycin. Today we plan to visit Jaipur and shortly before midnight we are going to Jaisalmer by train.
We went down, our host was already there, a bit later Canadian couple came. We have been offered possibility to leave our luggage here, return in the evening and to have dinner here. Then all 6 of us would take rickshaw to train station to catch our train. It would be very hard to refuse such an offer! We talked about our plans, Canadians wanted to go to Amber Fort too and we realized that having rickshaw for whole day is unnecessary expensive - it is possible to get to Amber Fort for 100 Rs, back to the city centre for 100 or less and it should cost 40 to return to guest house. Apart from Amber Fort everything else is in walking distance from each other. Our wannabe rickshaw arrived. We went outside and told him we decided to go only to Amber Fort and then City Palace and we were willing to give him only 150 Rs for that. He did not see it coming. He was surprised, but started to explain it is not possible for that price and that his price (whatever it was) is fair. He got angry and even went into guest house to dispute with Manoj! It was not very good feeling for us :-( Manoj asked him to leave his house (clearly the manners of those two men were different even for those who do not speak Hindi). As we went with driver outside Canadian couple came out too, telling him how ridiculous his price was. That did not help him to calm down. He was babbling something about government price list with 385 Rs for similar tour we wanted to make and he wanted us to show it, we just needed to go with him somewhere. No way! Finally he asked for 65 Rs for coming here and I gave him 60 just to get rid of him (even I knew I should not pay him at all). We went about 200m to find the nearest rickshaw and where Canadians shown us how to haggle properly. Since then amounts we paid to drivers went down :-) Thank you for that and sorry for forgetting your names!
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