Getting Packed for the Annual Hols
If we can, we try and get away overseas every year - doesn’t always happen but this year, we can manage it. Last year we managed two trips as we hadn’t been away for several years. At the end of the year we went to the UK for three weeks to see family and old haunts and it cost a fortune.
At the beginning of 2008 and far more enjoyable and reasonable was a trip to Vietnam. Laos and Thailand for 5 weeks - more of which in a future post. However, in a couple of days we’re off to India for the first time. More specfically, Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan for five weeks.
Any trip to that part of the world has to take into account the monsoons unless you want to wear wellies for the entire duration. This restricts the trips to between October and April, generally. This year, we’re going from the end of December to the 31st January.
We put together a rough itinerary and then book the first stop for a few nights while we decide where to go next. Inevitably we don’t get to see what we thought we would and see places that weren’t on the list - which is fine. We’re not package tour folk - 30 minutes to see this, and then back on the bus and then 1 hour to see that etc. - so we backpack about.
The Internet has made things much easier than they were. When we first embarked on these trips, all we had was a Lonely Planet and we’d trudge up and down streets trying to select a spot for the night - jumping on the bed, trying the plumbing. Not the greatest thing to do after a long trip - and often competing with other backpackers.
Now, it’s Hostelworld or Hostelbookers to find accommodation a day or two before. This year its:
Srinagar: The Dal Lake, the gardens, the mountains. Its our first stop and we’ve booked a houseboat on the lake for three nights. The choice from Delhi was a 30 hour bus trip or 1 hour flight. No prizes for the correct choice. The journey from Srinagar to Leh (which is closed with snow anyway) is only a couple of hundred kilometres but takes two full days on the bus, such is the mountainous terrain.
Jammu: the city of Temples so I’m lead to believe. We’re only going here because it’s at the end of a ten hour bus ride from Srinagar.
Dharamasala: to see Little Tibet as my wife is a great Tibet supporter. With luck we may see the Dalai Lama but we met him a few years ago in Durban so it won’t be too much of a loss.
Amritsar: to see the Golden Temple in the lake and to see the stage show at the border with Pakistan.
Bikaner: Funny spot but they do good camel safaris into the Thar desert for three days.
Jaisalmer: Fantastic hilltop fort that half the town still lives in. It’s the only fort of this type in India.
All the Purs - Jodhpur, Udaipur and Jaipur: Interesting forts, temples and festivals (if we’re lucky).
Agra: The Taj Mahal. However, reading the backpacker accommodation reviews and the crowds, I think we’ll miss it in favour of a couple of days in Delhi.
I don’t think that there’s a hope in hell that we’ll see all this in five weeks and we’ll probably end up sacrificing two and maybe three stops and fly to Delhi.
Postscript to the Nedbank Story
Well, it had better be a postscript.
For the first time today, I wanted to use my card at an ATM and guess what? ‘Transaction could not be completed’. And why (no prizes for guessing here)? The official story was ‘I don’t know’ but the reason for the error was that I was allowed to withdraw zero funds. Having increased the ATM wihdrawal limit to R5000 I asked the teller - ‘Can I go outside and wihdraw R5000 from the ATM now?’ The answer was predictably ‘No’, only the usual limit.
And yet, writ large in every Nedbank is ‘Number One for Service, Two Years in a Row’. Are they talking about this Nedbank, a branch in the Comores? Give me a break.