Macau

OK, this is a little different from India! We flew into Hong Kong a few days ago, but only stayed there briefly before catching the ferry over to Macau (we’ll be staying on Hong Kong for a lot longer later). And Macau is very special. Have a look at the pictures below to see what I mean!

This has to be the silliest, tackiest city I’ve ever seen! At least it doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously (although I dread to think how many people have ruined their lives here). It’s basically the only place in China where gambling is legal - somehow the result of it being an old Portuguese colony as Hong Kong used to belong to the UK. So it tries to mimic Las Vegas - lots and lots of glitzy lights and noise. And silly buildings with even sillier fountains. For example, we’re staying in the Hotel Lisboa, which is part of one of the biggest casino complexes here (we thought we should experience Macau properly!). The Lisboa consists of an old hotel that looks like a fairy cake with scrolling neon lights, and a new wing called the ‘Grand Lisboa’ – which is a giant golden pineapple made of shiny gold reflective glass and absolutely covered with lights of all colours, which flash on and off in an incredibly tasteless coordinated way to create words and pictures! Crazy – hideous, but fascinating!

The casino next-door (the Wynn) is a much less ostentatious building – just a huge square of nasty coloured reflective gold glass. Nothing special around here. But to make up for this it has a big fountain outside which puts on music displays: we just witnessed one to the soundtrack of ‘Diamonds are Forever’! The fountain jets swirled, shot in the air, and cascaded, all coordinated perfectly to the cheesy music. And then to finish it off, at the end jets of flame erupted from around the outside of the fountain pool! Crazy!

As for the inside of the casinos, well, they are equally silly if the Lisboa is anything to go by. The foyers have the biggest chandeliers I’ve ever seen, and are full of gold, shiny black and silver marble, mirrors, priceless jade statues and of course replicas of ancient Egyptian artefacts (like the Tutankhamen funeral mask). You can also find fountains inside with flashing neon displays that surly induce epilepsy. And go down to the ground floor and you’ll see an endless parade of young, pretty Chinese girls immaculately dressed in a uniform of high heels, low cut tops, and very short skirts. Hmm.

The rooms are also completely over the top. Although actually not always too expensive – believe it or not we’ve got 5 star plus facilities here for only £65 a night. You get all the usual posh hotel things, but add to that a bath / shower / steam room with 100’s of water jets that looks so modern it might happily fly into orbit! And although the room decoration is incredibly flash and tacky, I have to admit the duvet is probably the most comfy I’ve ever slept under. Makes it very difficult to get up in the morning.

And this is forgetting the other attractions of Macau, which include a floating casino, Japanese fortress, and of course the mini Italy complete with Venice, the coliseum, and a 40 foot high concrete volcano with a flaming summit! But the entertainment industry dominates. Casinos, cafés, restaurants, bars, and course cabaret is open 24 hours, and free to enter- but you can’t take a camera inside the casinos so we couldn’t post any photos of the interiors.

Undoubtedly, the most tasteless and gaudiest monstrosity is the Grand Lisboa (the pineapple) Casino so we had to go there. We saw the largest ‘cushion-shaped diamond’ in the world (called the Star of Stanley Ho) on the second floor, but it just looked like a bit of glass the size of a ping pong ball. Funny thing was, as packed as the casino was, no-one seemed to be really enjoying the experience even when they won. So Gary decided to test the experience and condemned a 20 HK dollar note (about £1.30) into a slot machine having no idea how to work it and fully expecting to lose all of it. Within 10 seconds, when 4 lion faces appeared he suddenly thought he won an unknown amount and decided to quit while he was ahead: it turned out to be 15 HK dollars (about a quid) of winnings - the cashier did not look impressed when he exchanged the printout from the slot machine for a measly 35 HK dollars!

OK, we prefer Hong Kong. A much more tasteful and vibrant city. But Macau is really worth visiting if only briefly to see all the silliness. Every few minutes you wander down the street a new fountain erupts, or some new light combination or huge statue catches your eye – it just makes me giggle! Anyway, we’ll be here one more night, and then back to stay in Kowloon (the bit of mainland China immediately associated with Hong Kong Island) for a while. I wonder if Disney Land Hong Kong is finished yet…

Macau Photos

This is our hotel complex! The Lisboa. We stayed in the old building on the right (the bit that looks like a multicoloured spinning top). The new bit (the Grand Lisboa) in the middle looked to us exactly like a giant gold, glittering pineapple. What do you think?

Vicki by the realistic replica of Pompei's volcano. 40 odd feet high, this giant mound of concrete issues flames from the top by night, and houses a gaming arcade as you'd guess. Nest door (right), is the original Italian-Japanese floating casino fortress. Just as the Romans planned.

Gary by the replica Tutankhamen head and (maybe fake?) ancient Egyptian thrones. These of course are the perfect decorations for any lift lobby!

Gary also graces the front of the pineapple at night. Nice shades of purples and greens, eh?

And finally, Gary pops up again in front of the elegant fountain of the Pharoah's Casino. Something tells me there might be more replica funeral masks inside...

Some glitzy lights around the back of the pineapple! Tasteful?

Chandigarh

Hello! Hope you’re all having a good time in the UK (or wherever you are at the moment). We’re still in India, although sadly we’re coming up to the end of our time here. On the other hand that means we’re going to Hong Kong and Japan soon, which we’re really looking forward to.

We’re in Chandigarh at the moment – in the first hotel with a wifi connection we’ve been in! It is so nice to be able to access internet on our own computer, as most of the ones in internet cafes out here are REALLY slow, with really bad dial-up connections to the internet. Waiting 15 minutes for a photo to upload to the blog can be a painful experience!

Chandigarh, as Indian cities go, is really quite modern. It was built following the Partition of India to be the capital of the Indian side of Punjab. And it’s turned out to be a slightly weird mix: imagine a very green and leafy Harlow with loads of Rickshaws! Almost unheard of for India it has pavements, and roundabouts which the locals actually go around the right way (well, at least most of the time)! And functioning traffic lights that people usually don’t ignore. There aren’t any cows wandering the streets either. Weird!

It’s actually a pleasant town to wander around – it does lack the character and bustle of some of the places we’ve visited, but it’s great not to be constantly harried as a tourist, and the roads pleasantly shaded by rows of trees are nice to stroll down. Chandigarh also boasts a completely surreal ‘Fantasy Rock Garden’ – built by a local at the time the city was constructed out of the junk construction caused (rock, stone, tiles, plastic light and plug sockets, ceramics etc). It’s really strange, but very very different from anything we’ve seen before, and well worth seeing if you’re in the area (have a look at some of the photos below).

Anyway, we have to head off to Delhi next. We originally intended to go to the hill station of Shimla first, but we’ve heard that the Hong Kong Chinese Embassy is no longer issuing visas to China for anyone unless they are Hong Kong residents (due to increases in work load in preparation for the Olympics). I’m just glad we found this out before getting to Hong Kong – we can apply in Delhi instead, but it does mean cutting our stay up north a little short. Never mind. Anyway, all the best, and we’ll hopefully speak to you soon.

Chandigarh Photos

Gary - at the bottom of a gully with a nice waterfall in the wierd 'Fantasy Rock Garden' in Chandigarh. Apparently this was started by one man who lived in the forest at the edge of town, and haulled junk from the town's construction back home to model wiht. Really really strange!
Another part of the Rock garden - this time with loads of broken bathroom tiles stuck on the wall as a collage. This place is not friendly to the disabled though - the passages from one section to the next are often really small as you can see here...

Gary particulary liked this roundabout - with it's immaculate golf green and bunker!

Amritsar

We arrived in Amritsar a few days ago. And by pure skill (ie our usual combination of complete luck and mistiming) we have been here over the festival of Vaisakhi. I am reliably informed by Gary that this marks the harvest celebrations and solar new year for Sihks. And of course Amritsar has one of their holiest temples – the Golden temple.

With our usual talent, we thought we’d visit the Golden temple the day before the festival, so it wouldn’t be too busy. But it was busy! People everywhere – nice, colourful, and very good natured. Lots and lots of huge turbans on display. And although you could walk relatively easily around the huge sacred pool that surrounds the Golden temple, the walkway leading to the temple itself had hundreds of people on it, crammed together, queuing. They must each have waited for hours to get to the building. We wondered if it was because of the imminent festival, but only found out after we’d left that we’d actually got the date wrong and it WAS Vaisakhi!

Anyway, we had a very pleasant walk around Amritsar, visiting the silver temple as well as the Golden one. The silver temple is a Hindu version of the Golden temple – just not so big, not so Golden (it has gold plate on the front, but this runs out when you go around the sides), and the pool around the temple building doesn’t have the fantastic coi carp you can see in the Golden temple’s. But it’s still nice – and was very festive yesterday.

Anyway, we’ll be moving on to Chandigar tomorrow by bus. This should be very different, as where Amritsar is a bustling old town (with a few modern bits) Chandigar was built only in the last century after Partition to be the new capital of Punjab. So It’s meant to be the most modern town in India. It should therefore have lots of internet cafes, so we’ll write soon!

Amritsar photos

The Hindu version of the Golden Temple in Amrtisar. We saw this one first, and it really confused us - we didn't reallise it was meant to be so much like the Golden Temple and so thought we were in the wrong place! Actually its nice, but nowhere near so impressive as the Golden Temple - and the Gold on it seems to run out in the sides of the building...




















A nice festival atmosphere on the streets on Amritsar during Vaisakhi. To get into the spirit - Gary with a very bright orange pseudo-turban at the Golden Temple. Loads of men were bathing in the pool around the temple - along with the fishes.

Udaipur

Hello again. We’re still in Udaipur at the moment, although we are scheduled to fly to Amritsar in Punjab the day after tomorrow (in time for Vaisakhi, the Sikh New Year). We didn’t originally intend to fly up to Punjab, but we couldn’t get a train out of Udaipur until the 16th (probably due to the very unhelpful staff at Udaipur railway station rather than lack of trains). But at least we get to travel in style, avoiding around 20 hours of train travel!

We will miss Udaipur though (or at least I will – I’m not so sure about Gary as he remains very unromantic!). This is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. The setting of the town around the mountain surrounded lake, with silly palaces on islands, is truly idyllic. Every time I see the sun go down it amazes me – and I’ve seen plenty of beautiful sunsets before. It’s something about how the reflections on the lake, and the way the mountains seem to fade into the distance. I hope the photos below give you some sort of idea, but you really should see it.

Udaipur is also a nice town to wander around – very alive. Especially at the moment as the festival of Mewar (called Gangaur in most places) is on – something where Indian women parade and worship the Godess of marital happiness, Parvati I think. Very colourful and good natured as you can see from some festive pictures, although they don’t capture the drums and music.

Anyway, we’ll post something on Vaisakhi and Amritsar in a few days. Let us know how you are by posting and email as although we’re having a great time out here we still miss you all!

Udaipur Photos

A typical sunset in Udaipur! This is how to spend the evening - get a cocktail and a meal overlooking the lake as the sun goes down!

The Mewar Festival in the square outside the Jagdish temple in Udaipur. Lots of colour and noise! They take these decoreted doll-like statues of several Hindu Gods down to the river after this and put them in boats.

A very huge and lovely elephant that caused complete chaos downtown - he went for watermelons, caused traffic jams, and then got all scared and crushed the windscreen of a rickshaw! The driver was not impressed.

The really silly Lake Palace - now a hotel which you have to pay at least $600 a night to visit. And the set for Octopussy.

The even sillier City Palace - huge, twisting, complicated and completely over the top!

Jodhpur

Once again, we braved the overnight train, to arrive in Jodhpur this morning. Actually this train was only about 20 minutes late arriving – a big improvement on the 2 hour delays we’ve come to expect (on our 15 hour journeys…)! We arrived bright and early and raring to go at 5.30am (groan). Why do all Indian trains leave at really inconvenient times? Either they are overnight and arrive obscenely early in the morning, which is kind of OK for novelty value in a sleeper compartment, but in reality it’s really difficult to sleep – especially after you’ve wedged your bags around your head so no-one can make off with them. Or they leave in the morning / afternoon and arrive at about midnight - making finding your hotel and checking in a nightmare! Grr. I think that half the problem is that all the rail tracks are single gauge, so when trains pass each other one has to be stationary, on a passing bay. Which means you spend lots and lots and lots of time stopped, which makes for a speedy journey of course! Oh, and the trains seem to have been built at least 20 years before we were born. And let’s not even think about the toilets! Ah well, it’ll be on to the Japanese Shinkansen soon…

Enough of the anti-train rant. Jodphur, like Jaisalimer is good fun. It’s another fort town, this time we’re much closer to Delhi, out of the desert, and so the landscape is really rocky and hilly. And the fort is really different – far more impressive in terms of scale and grandeur, but not so lived in and with no curious temples and twisting walkways. Both are really worth seeing.

We climbed up through confusing sidestreets and then a rocky path to the fort this afternoon, and then spent ages wandering around it and admiring the superb views over the city. Jodhpur is a big place, with a lot of the buildings painted blue (hence its nickname the blue city). Have a look at the pictures for a better idea.

Anyway, we’ll be going to Udaipur by bus next – probably leaving the day after tomorrow. This place apparently has a palace turned hotel in the middle of a lake where a 007 movie was shot. Don’t think we can afford to stay there somehow… but will post piccys!

Jodhpur Photos

The impressive Jodhpur fort in the early morning light... Again from the roof of our new, very very nice hotel!

Nice view from the fort over the city - plus a cannon and a Vicki

The blue city of Jodphur (on the other side of the fort). Another very nice view!

Jaisalmer

We’re presently in the middle of the Indian Thar desert, in a fortified town called Jaisalmer. And this is a world away from anything I’ve ever seen. The fort is like a giant sandcastle! Literally, a big triangle of 99 curved outer-wall sections, filled with a thriving town inside full of winding alleyways, shops, hotels, and (as usual) cows. Very much lived in, but it does feel like you’re in a novel or on a different planet.

The downside of being in the desert is the wind – we’ve been blasted by a sandstorm, so have taken shelter in our nice hotel (which again looks like something from Arabian Nights)! The other downside is that storms lead to power cuts! The sandstorm developed into a thunder and lightning storm (complete with more rain than Jaisalmer is meant to have in all of April), and knocked out the power for a few hours. Which wasn’t such a bad thing - thanks to Georg’s leaving present (an extremely powerful torch) we managed to navigate across town for dinner, avoiding cowpats successfully! It was actually almost magical to see the town lit only with candles (and Georg’s torch).

Jaisalmer is literally in the middle of nowhere – out on the Western edge of India, not a million miles from the border with Pakistan. The train we took from Jaipur took 15 hours to get here (but it did seem to spend a very very long time stationary!). We spent most of the journey trying to sleep, or chatting to a couple from Ireland in the bay across from us. They were doing a practically identical world trip to us, except in reverse order (and so they’re nearly at the end or it) – it was good to hear about some of the places we’ll be visiting in a few months time.

Jaisalmer Pictures

Gary meets a camel. And looks really happy about it! They're used a lot out here to pull carts and things, but tend to look really miserable - this one's bearing its teeth at Gary if you look closely...

Jaisalmer fort at night - from the rooftop restaurant of our hotel.

A haveli in the old town. Rich merchants and prime ministers would build these large houses, and then pay someone to cover the outside with really intricate carving. Completely over the top!

This gate to the lake is called Tilon Ke Pol. It was apparently built by a local prostitute, and the only reason the Maharajah didn't pull it down was because she put a shrine to the God Vishnu on top! So he had to put up with it's 'pollution' on the way to the lake :)

Jaisalmer fort gate at dusk. Really impressive, trust me!