Hello from Goa

Hello from Goa in India! We are having a very relaxing and amazing time in goa - relaxing is certainly not a word I would use to describe Delhi! Delhi sure was an experience and someone please contact the Queen and tell her to call off the commonwealth games! Your joking yourself if u think the commonwealth games will go to plan in Delhi!! :)
After our epic journey of flying to jakarta followed by a 12 hour layover in KL where we made the most of the malayasian food and relaxed with a lie by the pool, a snooze and a massage. We then had another 5 hours to Delhi where we checked into the fabulous and friendly hotel palace heights. Our first day we visited the major sites including the red fort, Jama masjid (largest mosque in India where I donned a sensational black flowery number to ensure I was well covered over my jeans and jumper!) and Chandi chowk - a crazy and at times rather frightening part of old delhi.. Our 2nd day in Delhi we went to Akshardam. With Mehul's help (thanks heaps Mehul!!) we bypassed all the queues which lemme tell you saved us more than an hour or more. This place was amazing and took 5 years and 7000 carvesmen to build. If only we were allowed to take our camera inside!!
On Saturday at 530am we made our way to new Delhi train station to catch the 615am express train to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. The fog in Delhi was intense.. Nothing like we've ever seen before. After being told the train is delayed by 2.5 hours, being dragged into a "government authorized" tour shop and stepping over thousands of stranded people at the train station we see the train is actually on the platfom and leaving in 3 minutes! By this time we have made a new friend, Valeria from Madrid. We jump onto the train and are told we need to go to the foreign information centre. So we run up 3 flights of stairs and it's closed! By this stage the train is leaving in 1 minute so we run back down the stairs, step on and over thousands more homeless and stranded whilst trying to be pulled to another government authorized tour desk by several people trying to "help us".. Eventually the 3 of us just say bugger it and get onto the train and we are off on our 2 hour express train to see the Taj Mahal!

The fog is so bad that it takes the train 7 hours to arrive in Agra! Our full day in Agra has become but a few hours. We have to cancel our 2 hour express train home as this is now delayed by more than 7 hours and won't be departing until 3am. It will also take another 7 hours to get back to Delhi so we wouldn't arrive until well after 10am! We hire a car between the 3 of us for the rest of the day and to drive us back to Delhi.. The Taj Mahal is THE most amazing building we have ever seen in our entire lives.. Surreal yet Sensational!After a few visits to crappy stores so our driver can get his coupons we got some more delicious food and begin our journey back to Delhi. What should have been a 4 hour car ride took 6 hours but we were happy to be alive at 1am and back in Delhi... Alive is something that at several stages throughout the journey home we didn't think would be possible. The fog was so bad that there were times we didn't even know what direction we were going or even if we were still on the road.. They all put their high beams on so they can "see better" in the fog! I think the theory is to just drive, put the high beams on, toot the horn continuosly and hope for the best! The road was jammed packed, people on push bikes and scooters, on foot and in cars and trucks. Many a time we nearly smashed straight into the back of a tractor ( no lights on tractors!) or into a person or cow trying to cross the road.. Alas, we made it alive and with a new life long friend (something only a life/death experience can provide!)

Whilst Delhi was at times crazy and overwhelming we had a super time and met some very friendly and wonderful people. We spoke to the poorest of the poor (at one of our many lengthy train stops) and jay entertained with stories of cricket and the king of captains Ricky Ponting!

Our flight to Goa is delayed by 2.5 hours (yes due to the fog!) but eventually, after a marathon couple of days we arrive in sunny Goa!Since arriving we have hired a scooter for the week, visited the tropical spice plantation and shopped at the anjuna market. We have eaten plenty of sensational food and mostly lay on the beach and relaxed. It's brilliant here, we both love it and are making the most of our time here.Over the next few days we plan to do some more lying on the beach, definitely more eating, praying that after all the eating I will still fit into my wedding dress, we will get an areyvedic massage, hopefully go to a trance party on the beach on Friday night and we fly to Cochin on Sunday for what should be a relaxing and enjoyable time away on a house boat. Tonight we have a wedding in our resort of 400 people so probably not much sleep for us tonight.. Oh well, guess we can sleep on the beach tomorrow!

Will update again from Mumbai.. Love Jay & Rach xx

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