We are now the experts on Indian temples, palaces, forts and national parks. We thought we would outline some of the fun and interesting things that happened during our visits, rather than an historical outline of these places, which you can always google research for yourselves anyway.
IPL CRICKET TRIAL: While in Ranakpur, Rodney and an English tourist, Nick, trialled for the Rajasthan Royals IPL cricket team. Both tourists were made captain and were required to name their all Indian squads, which consisted of various drivers and hotel staff. It will be no surprise to many of you that Rodney's bowling wasn't flash. He was unable to extract any turn from the wicket and was dispatched all over the carpark. Thankfully, a combination of Rodney's wicketkeeping and a 50 not out with the bat impressed the locals, who nicknamed him Brendon McCullum. Needless to say that Indians take all cricket very seriously and little did we know that rupees were being waged on the match. Woops. Thankfully, Rodney's team won.
INDIAN PAPARAZZI: Naively, Kirsty thought that colouring her hair darker for our trip to India may result in attracting less unwanted attention by the locals. Not so. Rodney has been continuously declining photo requests on Kirsty's behalf - particularly the requests whereby Rodney is asked to step out of the photo, so that the Indian male concerned can pretend that he is Kirsty's boyfriend / husband. The funniest request was by a wealthy teenage girl at the Taj Mahal who wanted a photo with us taken by a professional photographer.
CREATIVE INDIAN MARKETING: Indian retailers will do or come up with anything to earn the tourist rupee. The best example which we have seen has been from a linen stall at the Jaisalmer markets, see photo below. Rodney is pretty sure that sign off wouldn't be given by Shell legal for that. Not that Kirsty would disagree...
FEMALES IN INDIA: If you are a female in India, a cow is a great thing to be, as not only do you get worshipped, but you also get constant supplies of food as the locals believe that it is good luck to feed you. It's not so good been a female in India if you are busting to go to the bathroom. There are many public urinals around the place (cubicles or open space) but Kirsty is yet to work out exactly where females are meant to go when they really need to go. Kirsty is also yet to get used to being ignored when paying for something or checking in at a hotel.
A PRIME EXAMPLE OF STUPIDITY: Less than 12 hours after the American Embassy issued a terrorist warning to all Americans travelling around India, we spotted an American women walking through central Jodhpur wearing a t-shirt with a large American flag printed on it.
WORLD CUP TICKETS: We received good news earlier this week. We have been successful in the Football World Cup ticket ballot. Come mid-June, we will be watching Italy v Paraguay at the new Green Point Stadium in Capetown. Now we have to work out who to support.
On Saturday we fly to Kathmandu, Nepal where we hope to be able to load all our Indian photos onto our Flickr site. Stay tuned.
We hope you are all well, wherever you are reading this from.
Love Kirsty and Rodney.
You two are looking great! Miss you!
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