Mad Dogs and Englishmen

Yep, we have finally made it.
India.
The land of music and film that's so cheesy its almost stilton.
The land where everyone's head is attached very, very loosely.
The land where every fart is like a box of chocolates (you never know what you're going to get, but in this heat there is every chance it will be brown and runny).
India.

I have been wanting to come to this place for years and years, but it just seemed to get put off again and again.
This trip was supposed to be six to ten months traveling India, with a few weeks stop over in Thailand.
That stop over turned into six months in South East Asia and China.
India was put off again.
But we are finally here... and is it a let down after such a build up I hear you say?

Pigs arse is it! We love it.

There is one thing that is less than perfect though, the heat. Due to us arriving 5 months later than we expected to we are here for the middle of the Indian summer.
There's a phrase to describe people who travel India during the summer; "Mad Dogs and Englishmen". There is something in that phrase... not sure what exactly, but something.
Something along the lines of "ITS TOO BLOODY HOT YOU DICK HEAD".

We at FlashPackers are made of somewhat sterner stuff however, and aren't about to let a little bit of heat stop us. Are we?
Besides, were from Adelaide, it gets pretty bloody hot there too. Mid forties during the summer some times, so surely we can handle an Indian summer. Can't we?

The plan is to head out of Delhi for Mumbai and the coastal south beyond, stopping off along the way in the Rajasthani desert for a quick taste of Bundi
(a small place, rarely visited because it is old, dry and well past its glory days - when its wet though, its apparently glorious).



Should be doable.

When it gets too hot we can always retreat to the comforting, welcoming arms of a icey cold beer, just like back home on the farm..........
Except most of India has a pretty serious religious exception to beer (which is about as far from FlashPackerism as you can get).
(Nice name for a pub that, "The Welcoming Arms", must remember that one)

Ok, no beer, that's still doable. We can always find a pool somewhere surely?
Nope. Not much of a chance there. Not many pools - unless you count "pools" with more turd than water as a pool.

And there's no bloody beaches - its a bloody desert mate.



Even hot and dry, Bundi was beautiful. Unfortunately, with the temperature in the shade hovering around 49 degrees, lack of beer, pools or beaches, even us FlashPackers were not able to fully enjoy it. We spent a few nights in a beautiful old Haveli (old house) and had to move on for Mumbai.

At night the old palace is lit up. This is the view from our Haveli roof

The same view during the day

The gateway to the old quater of the town. It was all pretty old if you ask me!

Too hot for cows

Thank you, Come again.