Jamie and Naomi’s Adventure

Well we arrived in Singapore….what a contrast!!! We love it. We got a taxi to our hostel and realised we were in heaven. It was 8 o’clock in the morning, the sun was blazing down on us and our hostel is directly located above a bar which has a live band every night. Perfect!!

We checked into our room and had a look around the hostel. It is simple but does the job perfectly there is an area where all us travellers can congregate and eat, shared bathroom and the bedrooms are at the opposite end. It is family run and they really are lovely. They have a little on called Denise who really is as good as gold and can sometimes turn a boring afternoon into a funfilled one!! (The website for this fab hostel is www.fernloft.com)We then took the 15 minute stroll down to the beach and took in the sight of it. It really wasn’t what we expected at all it really is quite beautiful but, unfortunately one of the first things that met us on the beach was a used needle! As with everywhere there is always one.

We went down to the bar in the evening and were shocked at the prices of alcohol here, lucky the people that run the hostel had given us some drinks vouchers and a meal voucher so we took advantage of these. I think the idea is to make them last the length of your stay but we met a couple of really nice people and ended up using all the drinks vouchers in one foul swoop. Later around one o’clock we realised this was not a good idea as Jamie spent the next 30 minutes leaning out of the bedroom window looking at his stomach. The good thing was, it was the best nights sleep either of us have had since we have left.

We took the bus to the city centre to change some of our flights which was far easier than expected. The bus driver was more than helpful in telling us where we needed to get off and how to get the bus back. The public transport here is fantastic!! We had a good look around the city and then stopped for lunch at a little outdoor restaurant, we had noodles with prawns and it came to about $10SD so quite a good deal and it tasted good!

We have got a couple more nights here but we are going to use them to get a little organised and get some rest before flying to Vietnam.

All in all Singapore has been a welcome relief after India and it really is stunning. What should be ugly buildings ie flats and apartments are easy on the eye. The public transport is amazing and still they are updating the MRT and expanding it to further more of the city. And, this place is spotless which is always nice to see. The government really are looking after this place and it shows. Mum and Dad, next time you go to New Zealand you must stop in Singapore only for 2 nights that will be enough. You will love it.

Tips for Singapore:
1. If you are backpacking 2 nights is more than enough, we would love to have stayed here for longer but we really couldn’t afford it.
2. Try and get a hostel out of the city centre, it is much quieter, we are right near the beach and if we need to get into town it is an easy 15 minute bus ride
3. If you are a beach lover, do go to the beach there are segregated cycle and walker paths and it simply is beautiful, and is not at all what you would expect. You will be pleasantly surprised.

We have now been in India for a week and I have to admit that nothing could have prepared us for what awaited us here. We arrived at the airport and were taken into Delhi. Our taxi driver stopped in what we now know to be the Main Bazaar, but at the time it looked like an overcrowded back alley……. like the ones in big trouble in little China. So to be blunt we were bricking it!!! We walked through the crowds,beggars and traffic for what seemed like an eternity and then turned down an even darker, alley that smelt like a dingy toilet. (We didn’t notice until the second day that, the smell is due to two urinals at the entrance of the alley :-O). That was when reality hit home, we had no idea where we were, if we were safe and we were on our own!!! We got shown into the hostel and taken up to our room, which for what we had paid was quite respectable although a little small it is clean and tidy and has everything we need. We both looked at each other and I think the panic in our faces was obvious to the other, so for the first day we bottled it, we got into bed and slept, then phoned our parents. We both said it was to let them know we were safe but I think we could both now admit it was for our own benefit more than theirs!!

The following day feeling slightly more optomistic we opted for a tour of Delhi so that we could get our bearings and see some of the sights. We were surprised to find that going just five minutes out of Delhi made such a difference. It was quieter (not quiet) and much more beautiful. Some of the buildings here are absolutely amazing but, admitedly after half a day of sightseeing we were both tired and a little bored of looking at old buildings and much prefered to have something to eat and go back to the hostel. So we stopped for our first authentic Indian meal. We were both starving so enjoyed this immensely both aware that we may regret it in the morning……….regret it we did!!! I think you get the idea.

We started on our journey to do the Golden Triangle as planned. First stop Agra. We had been told by many locals desperate to practice their English on us that Agra and Jaipur were much more beautiful than Delhi and showed much more Indian Culture. Fellow travellers beware …… they are almost all identical in the fact that they are over crowded and in reality not that different at all, do not be misled like us!! We found a hotel, had a rest after the five hour journey. Then made our way to the Taj Mahal. It is a very beautiful building and has a very interesting story behind it. If you are coming to India on a budget please be aware that it costs 100Rupees to get to the Taj as you can only get there by electric car as they do not allow cars or buses that produce pollutants within 1 kilometre of the building, and it is the 750Rupees pp (which is about 10 GBP each)to get in, so go with your pockets full.

On our way to Jaipur we stopped at Bharatpur National Park. It was a much needed break from the hussle and bussle of the city centres and the National Park was beautiful. We even got to see a Python in its nest!!! It was the best nights sleep that we had had in the few days that we had been here but we both woke up bitten to shreds!! Jamie had a massive 17 bites….it must be a record?

Jaipur we were told we would need 2 days for so we planned for two days sightseeing etc. We visited all the Forts, Palaces, Monuments and Buildings you could possibly want to visit and often ended up finding ourselves in “handicraft” shops, basically they want to show you how something is made, but what they really want is for you to buy it!!!

We arrived back in Delhi exhausted, but, never thought we would say this, glad to be back. We went for a walk to get some food and found a little cafe on a side street that serves good cheap food, so good you can ignore the 100’s of flies that are buzzing round you when you eat. We were just glad to see some vegetables as after a week of curries we have started to crave them. We leave for Singapore in couple of days so we will be spending them relaxing and investigating the side alleys that we are no longer afraid of.

Tips for Travelling in India:
Although we have only been here over a week we have learnt this much,
1. Tipping: Is a massive thing out here and is almost obligatory. Be careful how much you tip especially if you are on a tight budget like ourselves. When, you have given them the tip you can almost guarantee they will want more and prompt this by saying “Are you happy” or the braver ones say “this is no good”(This does not happen in restaurants as there is a standard 10% charge). Tipping is not obligatory and only give what you think they deserve we can survive here on just 250Rupees each a day and we like our luxuries. Imagine what they can survive on.
2. Guides: Everywhere you go such as monuments, forts etc. you will be approached by guides. Say “No, Thank You” you do not need them there are boards all around the attractions telling you exactly what happened and/or what it is all about.
3. Beggers and Sellers: Especially in the busier towns and cities you will be constantly harassed, we have found with beggers the trick is to point blank ignore them and with sellers when they approach you, make no eye contact, do not look at what they are selling and purposely shake your head and say “no thank you” 9 times out of 10 they will just walk off but occassionally you will find a persistant one that will chase you down the street. Just be hard!!!
4. Sight seeing: If you are not interested don’t do it for the sake of it we found ourselves wasting money on things that we didn’t really want to see. If you want to do the mains they are as follows: Taj Mahal (of course) Agra, One of the national parks, Amber Fort (Jaipur), and the Observatory (Jaipur) this would be most interesting if you can get there to be in it for 12 noon as this is when it shows all of the correct readings. Other than that if you see one Fort and one Tomb you have seen them all. They are all intertwinned somehow so you get the same story each time.
5. First Timer?: As first timers ourselves our biggest mistake was bottling it the first day, arrive, rest if you need to and then get out there. We have found that things are much more bearable now that we have gone out an explored. Do it straight away.

We will add photos when we get to Singapore, they do not have the facilities here!!!

Hi guys Well the time has arrived and we leave for India on Saturday. Excited and scared....but mostly excited!! We hope you enjoy our blog as much as I hope we will enjoy writing it!! Love ya