New Years Eve

The days seem very long its hard to remember everything. We started as you can tell with curry for breakfast, was spicey and our stomachs groaned at a further helping of hot spicey food. That was accompanied by a yummy mix of sweet porridge / rice pudding. Drive to Bikaner was uneventful, roads smooth, except for a 20min wait for two of the longest trains we have ever seen, well over 30 carridges each. The terrain is more desert like but we are still seeing the sights of people and poverty everywhere, but I guess that’s india.

Hotel in binkaner is again is delightful although like the hotel on the first night the bathroom facilities required some jolley-jarvis DIY, this time the boiler set high above the beautiful tiling in the bathroom needed some attention in order to get the hotwater working…martin, first to get in the shower therefore set about working his magic on the boiler…dressed in just his dashing pink boxers ( It’s only fair that this is pointed out now so that when the photos follow you won’t be so alarmed!) standing on the toilet to reach the inlet tap he leaned over and the toilet seat shifted, in his panic he uses the top of the beautiful tiles to steady himself….but unfortunately the tiles weren’t up to the job and gave way…we did get the hot water sorted out for them but think that cancels out the damage we did in the process!

We headed into Binkaner and saw the Red Fort, it was huge and again very ornate. There were rooms covered in painted gold and large halls with carved walls, stained glass windows, and the green gardens (the only green we have seen since travelling west). We had locals taking pictures of us and lots of stares although this is on the tourist route and peak season we have seen very few westerners.

We wanted to go the market. Our driver stopped on the edge of a round-about and flagged down a Tuctuc as cars aren’t allowed in the market. The Tuctuc driver immediately did a U-turn on the round-about to double back and collect us…his driving capabilities as a 13 ish year old were not exactly reassuring! After an exchange of words we were ushered into the Tuctuc by our driver and told we would be taken back to the hotel by the tuctuc in an hour..all for 120 Indian rupees. After about 30mins driving another anxious stop in down town Bikaner for a train (with locals peering in the side (its amazing the added security windows give). What was more disturbing is the driver could not speak a word of English and we thought we had arrived at the market. One very confusing conversation later we asked to return to the hotel (by making the sign of the house and shouting hotel). Strange and silly how our response to someone not understanding English is to speak louder and slower like we were auditioning for forrest gump! After a rollercoaster styleride back to the hotel we were able to disembark and hand over our rupees grateful for the experience and for its end all in one go!

Back at the hotel we managed to catch up with family members inbetween the Indian music rehearsals on good old Skype. New year was a lively affair in the hotel with a “gala dinner”consisted of four different types of curry (some exceptionally hot), we had a couple of drinks and danced the night away to typical pop remixed in with Indian dub…anything from Justin beiber to Michael jackson. Then countdown and what looks to be a very promising 2012.