Until I really have time (and mood) to write a proper travelog for our India trip, here’s the first video featuring Delhi (New and Old Delhi) with Az throughout the clip and no ilyani!! >.< Coz the camcoder filming was my job, and he does the photo. Enjoy.
Excuse for low-quality, I just did smallest resolution possible in movie maker. I could have opt for HD but uploading (and streaming) with slower connection isn’t fun.
Category : India
Currently in hot Agra, after spending 2 days (+1) in Delhi, 1 day in Amritsar and 5 freezing days in Kashmir. Going home on Sunday,.
Taj Mahal is surely pretty, but Agra isn’t our most favorite place here. The best days we had were in Kashmir. Watching sunset from shikara on majestic Dal Lake, playing snow in Gulmarg, walking in a quiet countryside in Pahalgam, staying in exotic houseboats in Srinagar (please check Butt’s Clermont Houseboat) I will surely be having endless stuff and photos to share. Later.
Category : India
1) New Delhi – Amritsar 448 km
AC Chair Car (CC) Day trip Rs.1262 (with meal :D)
2) Amritsar – Jammu 206 km
AC 2 Tier (2A) Night trip Rs.910
3) Jammu – New Delhi 577 km
AC 2 Tier (2A) Night trip Rs.1855
4) New Delhi – Agra 195 km
AC 2 Tier (2A) Day trip Rs.930
5) Agra – New Delhi Nizamuddin 187 km
Sleeper (SL) Day trip Rs.305
Thanks to Farah who recommends Cleartip.com for hassle-free Indian train booking, when Az & I were almost giving up with IRCTC website that treats all their visitors as Indian citizens =.= (I mean, filling up Indian address and Indian phone number IS required, and also, what’s with the long list of Indian bank and payment gateways I have to choose when I want to make payment with a foreign credit card?).
Anyway. Cleartip.com has a tiny small charge but almost ignorable. When the standard-comfortable class train fares (2AC) arent very cheap either, I still am amazed that the total railway journey spanning 1613 km only costs Rs.5262 equal RM356 for two!
We’ve been studying Indian trains like its classes and types from several websites and forums, and also from Manu (my old penpal whom we’ll be meeting in Amritsar yeay!) but this is one quick guide if you want to get to know this epic Indian trains :)
I guess it’s time for me to announce officially here that WE ARE GOING TO INDIA IN APRIL 2011! Got very cheap deal for AirAsia the other week so we thought no further! :P Total price of RM858 for return tickets for two persons (including taxes, luggage, insurance, airport bus etc) to New Delhi, isnt that a real bargain?
Well the reason I keep holding from talking about this to the world is coz when I think again, I know it seems weird that I’m busy planning for the trip with my (to-be) husband even before thinking and planning about wedding =.= I do look way more excited with the trip than the wedding even though it makes sense that the trip comes after the wedding. In fact, months after the wedding >.< I dont know, say I’m a weird species, I dont mind. I dont know if I ever plan anything regarding the wedding and kenduri yet. Ugh.
OHHOHO, forget the wedding, it’s not important yet :P let’s discuss about India, shall we?
Roughly that is our plan for now. Since India is too big and we can barely cover 5% of it for a 2 week trip, so we decided to go to somewhere important first. Actually the word ‘important’ isnt right here, coz all places are important, so basically we wanted to go to somewhere we feel like going first. Of course, New Delhi as it’s where we’re landing and it’s the capital, and Agra to see Taj Mahal (speaking of Taj Mahal, kindly check my post in the postcard blog with Taj Mahal postcards I received) and also India postcards in my Flickr doesnt that justify that I really need to go and see those for real? :)
And. Az suggested that we go to Kashmir. Simply coz we can have snow in the mountain there. Though in April I cant expect snowfall like winters, but it still DOES have snow in some places in Kashmir in April! We have to learn about safety there as well, and I joined some forums like IndiaMike to get to know more about the place, where to stay, what to see, the transport, hotels, etc. It sounds like a huge work to make this independent trip, but it’s been exciting planning so far! :D Our route will be: New Delhi -> Amritsar (meeting my old penpal Manu there) -> Jammu -> Srinagar -> Gulmarg/Pahalgam/Sonamarg -> Jammu -> New Delhi -> Agra -> Fatehpur Sikri -> New Delhi. Do I sound like a travel expert already? :P
And like I said in previous post about CouchSurfing, we’re looking forward to experience a few days surfing at some hosts along the way to make the “Get to know India” mission more real, and we’ve actually contacted a couple of people for the purpose and got some lovely, welcoming response :) Therefore it’s a good news, and the more I’m impatient about the trip!
