The trip to Bangkok (by bus) is again a memorable one. The road from Battambang to Poipet (last Cambodian town before the Thai border) is hellish, extremely bumpy and muddy. Rainy season, remember?
All the windows of the bus got splashed with mud:
In Sisophong, on the way to Poipet, we had a stop of at least 1,5 hours, after which we had to change buses. We suspect that the bus was not full enough and so they just waited for the next one and put all passengers (or is it patients?) together. During the stop, there were of course herds of children offering cold water, softdrinks and food. They were all very charming, they got on our bus, wanted to have their picture taken and started singing and dancing when an American rasta-guy got out his drum. It was fun. Euh… I bought a refreshing towel from them, couldn´t resist.
Changing countries at this border is quite a scene. Poipet is a small Las Vegas, with casinos and luxury hotels. Since gambling is prohibited in Thailand, the addicts all come to Poipet to fulfil their needs. Another striking thing is the change of bus, from a dirty bus with uncomfortable seats, we suddenly get into a super-de-luxe Thai bus with AC, seats to dream away on and space for our legs. We arrived in Bangkok around 21h, dropped our bags in a cell-like cheap room on Khao San road, to ensure ourselves a room after a long and tiring day, and then went out decent-room-hunting. For the next 4 nights, we booked in a lovely guesthouse, a wooden house and an oasis in the middle of Bangkok, although still near Khao San, where all the backpackers action takes place. I convinced Lluís that this guesthouse was worth paying a little more, but we had bad luck. The room was too hot, had too many mosquitoes and poor Lluís didn´t have a single good night´s sleep here. Imagine how guilty I felt. We did get coffee and tea for free… That´s something, isn´t it?
22/09/07
First thing we do is pick up the flight tickets to Calcutta that we booked with a Bangkok travel agency, after exchanging hundreds of emails with Miss Soawatree. Since it is on the way, we visit the Goddess Tuptim Shrine, which is supposed to be dedicated to fertility, judging from the thousands of gifts made to this goddess.
23/09/07 Today is a day for thoroughly visiting Chinatown, with its amazing market, where you can find anything from food and spices to the parifernalia you can find in the Chinese shops in Barcelona, but in thousand fold and much more variety. There is also a nice Indian market, Phahurat, which makes us feel as if we are in India again. We have lunch in an Indian restaurant, because Lluís has been craving for it since we left India. In the rest of Asia, Indian restaurants were generally too expensive, but here it is affordable.
On the colourful bus to Chinatown:
Chinatown:
Wat Mangkon Kamalawat:
Any unwanted visitors? Just call this number!
The Chinese market: 
24/09/07
Lazy day for washing, blogging, organizing photos and reading. Yes, we have those days…
25/09/07
Shopping day.
26/07/09
Today seems to be our lucky day (let´s not say it out loud in case our luck changes).
No early rising today, since we have our flight at 14.15h to Calcutta. Let me first explain the reason why we fly to Calcutta so late, instead of dedicating it a few more days. And why to Calcutta and not to Delhi straight away?
Well, we couldn´t find any cheap flights to Delhi. Flights Bangkok-Calcutta were a lot cheaper, so we booked a flight on the 24th to Calcutta, in order to spend a few days there and then continue to Delhi by train. About 2 weeks ago, Miss Soawatree sent us an email saying that our flight had been cancelled and moved to the 26th. This ruined our plans, but since we had become very flexible after months of adapting to circumstances, we stayed a bit longer in Cambodia (which is why we visited Battambang) and decided to not spend any time in Calcutta, but take the train (20 hours!) straight after our arrival by plane. Yes, a bit of a nuisance…
Now, today we arrive at the airport and the first thing we see when looking for the check-in counter is that our flight has been cancelled… again. From further questioning we learn that we can still get to Calcutta today, but we have to go via Delhi. Of course, we demand to be dropped off in Delhi, which they accept. Yes! We´ve got our cheap flight to Delhi, ladies and gentlemen! No extra train fare to pay, no extra 20 hours of travelling. Now, ain´t that nice?
Something else that happened this morning… We get up, I go for a coffee (self-service in the kitchen of our guesthouse), Lluís comes to ask me a question (having closed - but not locked - the door of our room), and we sit chatting in the garden with an Australian guy for 4 minutes. When we get back to the room, the door is open, as well as our bags and money belts. Luckily, and God knows why, the 1000 Bahts (30 USD) we had, our passports and our last traveller´s cheque were still there. The “thief” must have either been surprised and didn´t have the time to take anything, or he might have thought that 30 USD was not worth the risk.
At the airport in Delhi that afternoon, an American guy asks Lluís for help, because he is a bit lost. Lluís, by now a real Delhi expert, offers him to share a taxi to Main Bazaar (main steet of Paharganj, the backpacker´s area) and to look for a hotel together. Thanks to the fact that we booked two rooms for 5 nights, we were able to get a good discount. Yep, definitely our lucky day!
27/09/07
In order to get slowly into Delhi again, we leave Main Bazaar´s chaos of blowing horns, insistent vendors, pushing crowds and holy cows as quickly as possible and head for the train station to buy tickets to Agra for tomorrow. Nice opportunity to see the Taj Mahal.Then we´re off to Connaught Place and the Janpath market for some shopping. It is amazing the amount of people that come to talk to us, just because we´re foreign. Some (but few) only want to be helpful or are curious, but the majority want to get us in their rickshaw, in their brother´s shop, in their cousin´s restaurant or in their friend´s travel agency.
Since we were woken up at 6h this morning by some generator or engine, we have a recovering siesta, before heading to Chandni Chowk and Chawri Bazaar. I think this is one of the areas I like the most in Delhi for its authenticity. The only disadvantage here is that one cannot really relax and enjoy, because you have to take care where you step (rubbish, cow shit,…), make sure you don´t get hit by a bicycle or a rickshaw, or get your breasts or bum groped at by some Muslim man (I have to remember next time to wear some shapeless, long-sleeved shirt).
Back in the hotel, I looked at the guidebook to be prepared for the Taj Mahal excursion, when I suddenly saw “closed Fri”. And guess what day it is tomorrow? Exactly!
28/09/07
So, we quickly go and change or tickets to Agra to Saturday (we still recover 50% of the fare) and we head for the Red Fort (Lal Qila). A little disappointing, since most of its former splendour has been destroyed along the way, either during rebellions or by the British Army when they used the fort as their headquarters.
While Lluís goes on photo and shopping safari, I spend the afternoon updating our blog in the hotel room, where I discover to be in charming company…
Although I actually prefer these cute creatures to cockroaches, we asked to be moved to another room anyway.
29/09/07
Yes! Today I am actually and finally going to see the Taj Mahal! We get up at 4.30h to take the 5.30h train to Agra. The train arrives 2 hours late, so we arrive at 10.45h instead of 8.45h. First “Grrrr” of the day.
...but someone is still fast asleep:
Once we get to the centre of town, Taj Ganj, the tuk-tuk driver informs us that, due to some VIPs visiting the taj Mahal, it is closed today. He tells us this – of course – after dropping us of and having received his 50 Rupees for the ride. Second “Grrrrr”.
A couple of Dutch people confirm this for us and take us to their guesthouse, which – so they say – has a rooftop restaurant that serves good food and offers a nice view on the Taj. My advice: never trust a Dutchman when food is concerned. Although the view was indeed marvellous, the food was nothing special and too salty. Third “Grrrr”.
Hey, some good news: the Taj Mahal is supposed to open again in the afternoon. “Great! What time?” One waiter says 13h, the other one 18h. Even the guards at the entrance cannot give us a straightforward answer. So, we go and visit the Baby Taj and a mosque, taken there in rickshaw by a charming baba (=old man, that´s what he called himself anyway, although he´s only 53).
In the end the Taj Mahal opened again at 17h, but it wasn´t worth it, since we had to catch the train back to Delhi. Nope, today was definitely NOT our lucky day.
Lazy day for washing, blogging, organizing photos and reading. Yes, we have those days…
25/09/07
Shopping day.
26/07/09
Today seems to be our lucky day (let´s not say it out loud in case our luck changes).
No early rising today, since we have our flight at 14.15h to Calcutta. Let me first explain the reason why we fly to Calcutta so late, instead of dedicating it a few more days. And why to Calcutta and not to Delhi straight away?
Well, we couldn´t find any cheap flights to Delhi. Flights Bangkok-Calcutta were a lot cheaper, so we booked a flight on the 24th to Calcutta, in order to spend a few days there and then continue to Delhi by train. About 2 weeks ago, Miss Soawatree sent us an email saying that our flight had been cancelled and moved to the 26th. This ruined our plans, but since we had become very flexible after months of adapting to circumstances, we stayed a bit longer in Cambodia (which is why we visited Battambang) and decided to not spend any time in Calcutta, but take the train (20 hours!) straight after our arrival by plane. Yes, a bit of a nuisance…
Now, today we arrive at the airport and the first thing we see when looking for the check-in counter is that our flight has been cancelled… again. From further questioning we learn that we can still get to Calcutta today, but we have to go via Delhi. Of course, we demand to be dropped off in Delhi, which they accept. Yes! We´ve got our cheap flight to Delhi, ladies and gentlemen! No extra train fare to pay, no extra 20 hours of travelling. Now, ain´t that nice?
Something else that happened this morning… We get up, I go for a coffee (self-service in the kitchen of our guesthouse), Lluís comes to ask me a question (having closed - but not locked - the door of our room), and we sit chatting in the garden with an Australian guy for 4 minutes. When we get back to the room, the door is open, as well as our bags and money belts. Luckily, and God knows why, the 1000 Bahts (30 USD) we had, our passports and our last traveller´s cheque were still there. The “thief” must have either been surprised and didn´t have the time to take anything, or he might have thought that 30 USD was not worth the risk.
At the airport in Delhi that afternoon, an American guy asks Lluís for help, because he is a bit lost. Lluís, by now a real Delhi expert, offers him to share a taxi to Main Bazaar (main steet of Paharganj, the backpacker´s area) and to look for a hotel together. Thanks to the fact that we booked two rooms for 5 nights, we were able to get a good discount. Yep, definitely our lucky day!
27/09/07
In order to get slowly into Delhi again, we leave Main Bazaar´s chaos of blowing horns, insistent vendors, pushing crowds and holy cows as quickly as possible and head for the train station to buy tickets to Agra for tomorrow. Nice opportunity to see the Taj Mahal.Then we´re off to Connaught Place and the Janpath market for some shopping. It is amazing the amount of people that come to talk to us, just because we´re foreign. Some (but few) only want to be helpful or are curious, but the majority want to get us in their rickshaw, in their brother´s shop, in their cousin´s restaurant or in their friend´s travel agency.
Since we were woken up at 6h this morning by some generator or engine, we have a recovering siesta, before heading to Chandni Chowk and Chawri Bazaar. I think this is one of the areas I like the most in Delhi for its authenticity. The only disadvantage here is that one cannot really relax and enjoy, because you have to take care where you step (rubbish, cow shit,…), make sure you don´t get hit by a bicycle or a rickshaw, or get your breasts or bum groped at by some Muslim man (I have to remember next time to wear some shapeless, long-sleeved shirt).
Back in the hotel, I looked at the guidebook to be prepared for the Taj Mahal excursion, when I suddenly saw “closed Fri”. And guess what day it is tomorrow? Exactly!
28/09/07
So, we quickly go and change or tickets to Agra to Saturday (we still recover 50% of the fare) and we head for the Red Fort (Lal Qila). A little disappointing, since most of its former splendour has been destroyed along the way, either during rebellions or by the British Army when they used the fort as their headquarters.
While Lluís goes on photo and shopping safari, I spend the afternoon updating our blog in the hotel room, where I discover to be in charming company…
Although I actually prefer these cute creatures to cockroaches, we asked to be moved to another room anyway.
Some results of Lluís´photo hunting:
29/09/07
Yes! Today I am actually and finally going to see the Taj Mahal! We get up at 4.30h to take the 5.30h train to Agra. The train arrives 2 hours late, so we arrive at 10.45h instead of 8.45h. First “Grrrr” of the day.
Delhi train station at 5.30h. Already very crowded...
...but someone is still fast asleep:
Once we get to the centre of town, Taj Ganj, the tuk-tuk driver informs us that, due to some VIPs visiting the taj Mahal, it is closed today. He tells us this – of course – after dropping us of and having received his 50 Rupees for the ride. Second “Grrrrr”.
A couple of Dutch people confirm this for us and take us to their guesthouse, which – so they say – has a rooftop restaurant that serves good food and offers a nice view on the Taj. My advice: never trust a Dutchman when food is concerned. Although the view was indeed marvellous, the food was nothing special and too salty. Third “Grrrr”.
Hey, some good news: the Taj Mahal is supposed to open again in the afternoon. “Great! What time?” One waiter says 13h, the other one 18h. Even the guards at the entrance cannot give us a straightforward answer. So, we go and visit the Baby Taj and a mosque, taken there in rickshaw by a charming baba (=old man, that´s what he called himself anyway, although he´s only 53).
Baby Taj:
At Agra´s mosque, where the guard insisted in taking our picture:
Lallo, our cycle-rickshaw driver:
Agra is a very photogenic town:
In the end the Taj Mahal opened again at 17h, but it wasn´t worth it, since we had to catch the train back to Delhi. Nope, today was definitely NOT our lucky day.
Taj Mahal from a rooftop restaurant: 
30/09/07
Saying-goodbye-to-Delhi day, packing day, last-shopping day, booking-taxi-to-airport day, etc.
Saying-goodbye-to-Delhi day, packing day, last-shopping day, booking-taxi-to-airport day, etc.
01/10/07
WE´RE FLYING BACK!!!
WE´RE FLYING BACK!!!
