South Asia

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Going to the Pushkar Camel Fair

Journey to Pushkar My solo adventure starts today with a long train ride from Delhi to Pushkar for its famous Camel Fair.  With my Ajmer Shatabdi train departing at 0610, it was an early check-out from my Paharganj hotel. At 0530, walking to New Delhi Railway Station, I expected the streets to be deserted.  But […]

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Saying goodbye

After breakfast, I treated myself to an Ayurvedic massage at 1000.  I had a four-hand oil massage by a man and woman.  She was the stronger one but despite that, now that I’ve had a few attempts with Ayurvedic massage, I should give up.  I like hard massages and to be mangled Thai-style.  Kim opted […]

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Old Delhi and Gurgoan High Tea

Red Fort and Chadni Chowk What a treat (and a change) it was to have muesli, yoghurt and honey for breakfast at Everest Café, in addition to an omelette. We decided to revisit one of Delhi’s sights, the Red Fort.  The entrance seemed very different and park-like whereas 12 years ago it was very clamorous.  […]

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Back to the capital

Flying back to Delhi Today we fly back from Amritsar to Delhi to join up with Kim’s family.  We woke at 0630 and made our way to the airport soon after, for the 0915 flight.     Like in Mumbai, each airline does their own security checks.  Amritsar airport doesn’t handle many international flights and […]

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Golden Temple & Wagah border

Golden Temple again I woke up tired.  After couriering the guesthouse key back to Chandigarh to Princess Wendy, we took breakfast around 1030.  The courier charge was INR20 (about NZD0.60) which was very reasonable considering the weight of the key and the big keyring. The Indian style breakfast consisted of various breads namely idli (like […]

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Intercity travel

Taking the bus Today Kim and I left the rest of the family in Chandigarh while we went our separate way to Amritsar.  We woke around 0700 and had Mushtaq take us to the nearby bus station around 0845.  There weren’t any air-con buses available so we tried another station at sector 43.  Unfortunately there […]

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Meeting the step-mother

Above:  Turbans at the changing room while their owners are golfing or showering. I woke up late this morning, felling tired, wheezy and hay-feverish.  We took breakfast downstairs around 0930 and relaxed until picked up by Mushtaq at 1100.  Today is Eid ul-Adha (or Hari Raya Puasa in Malaysia). We arrived at Princess Wendy’s house […]

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A real life princess

We took breakfast at a roadside café which seemed to be part of the Osho complex.  My thin omelette was wrapped around soft white bread.  It was quite nice. We departed when Nandini dropped Jo over to us.  Today, we are driving towards Chadigarh.  The scenery was quite forested to start off with but turned […]

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Short drive back

Today we took a short drive back to Dehradun after a breakfast of toast.  While I enjoy my Indian breakfast, toast is less greasy than most Indian bread options. Our drive back to Dehradun took us through the end of Mall Road which we hadn’t explored.  As we approached Dehradun, we passed a Tibetan market […]

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Hill station

For some reason I woke at 0130 wide-awake and needed half a sleeping pill to take me through till the morning.  I woke really tired. Having been talked into buying a local SIM card last night, I had to go to the local Public Call Office (PCO) to provide a photo and a note from […]

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