ShermanAndGreg Technology and Business

Well it is half-term here in England and it’s been nearly 3 months since you Aussies have been updated about our little trip so I thought I would fill you all in.
Since our last entry, we have had international visitors, bought cars, moved house, found jobs, severly injured ourselves, quit jobs, found better jobs and even got to see a few sights in between!
So let’s start from the start.
Not long after we arrived and settled in to Sue and Mike’s lovely house, we were hot on the hunt for jobs. As luck would have it, the news soon told us that parts of Birmingham were at 10% unemployment due to that infernal ‘R’ word that everyone gets in a frenzy about. I had quickly secured a placement with a relief teaching agency but needed some work to fill in the school holidays. As fortune has it, English people seem to like to drink alot and the amount of pubs that were in walking distance was phenomenal. Within about 2 weeks I had a job working 60+ hours in a pub called the Shoulder of Mutton. I was getting paid £5/hr and working from 11am until midnight 5 days a week. The pub was absolutely horrible and although English people do not know this term, the word ‘bogan’ quickly sprang to mind. The majority of our customers did not work and spent what little money they had at the pub. It was due to these crazy hours that I managed to completely wreck my back bending over and spent over a week in bed. My spirits were lifted when we had a very lovely couple by the name of Grandma and Grandad come and stay overnight. Whilst I wasn’t able to go out and see the sights with them, it was really good to see some familar faces and eat Anthea’s special Spagetti and meatballs.
So it wasn’t long before I was back at work and Anthea had secured some interviews. Several of the jobs were part time, but anything was going to be better than nothing. Amazingly, within a week of the interviews, she was offered BOTH of the part time jobs. As luck would have it, she even managed to swap some times around, meaning she is now working full time, with 50% as a data analyst for the National Health Service and 50% as the membership officer for the National Governors Association (the association behind school governors).
So after all this complaining we have done on this blog about this and that, things finally started to go our way.
We soon bought a rocket of a car in the form of a 1997 2 door Ford Fiesta, which doesn’t quite shine as much as I would like but still gets us from A to B and back again. Although  ashamedly our first stop was Macdonalds drive-thru, our first real trip in the car was to move house. 
Our new house is a lovely 1 bedroom flat on the top of a 3 story complex that has been completely redone from the inside out. All our appliances, furniture and paint is brand new and it’s in one of the nicest areas in Birmingham. For those of you wanting to contact us the old-fashioned way, our new address is:

 Flat 301
100 Ferncliffe Rd,
Harborne, Birmingham
UK.
B17 0QH  <– that’s a zero.

Hello

This is my first post so I would just like to take the chance to say this website is amazing.

A big thank you to everyone who takes time to give advice that helps novices like me. The wealth of experiences posted are mind blowing. All of the posts have been helpful and informative which have helped me to start preparing my trip to India. (I will post my India experience when I return)

I have drafted an initial itinerary but I would like help and advice to ensure I make best use of my time in India.

The only concrete plans so far are that my girlfriend and I have return flights booked to Mumbai 25/02/09 – 16/03/09 (20days). We would like 1/2 of our holiday to be sightseeing and sampling culture and the other 1/2 to be rest and relaxation.

We would like help with the following:

- Are we spending too much or too little time in each place?
- Are our methods of transport to and from each location ok or could we travel better?
- Does anyone know if our accommodations or good or can anyone reccommend good places to stay?
- Are there more sights that we should see but I have not listed and the opposite?
- Are we just going to the tourist places when there are more important sights/locations that we could see?
- Any other advice, hints, tips etc please reply.

No of full days (approx) in each location:

1.0 = Mumbai
2.0 = Udaipur
2.5 = Jaipur
1.0 = Agra
1.0 = Delhi
10.0 = Goa

(There is a word document attached with an inserted table if the below is too much to read!)

Day 1

Location: Manchester

Day 2

Location: Mumbai & Udaipur

- Arrive Mumbai 03:05
- Fly from Mumbai to Udaipur 12:45

Transport: Flight via Yatra. Journey Dur: 1hr 10min

Accomodation: Mewar Haveli

Day 3

Location: Udaipur

Sights:

- City Palace of Udaipur
- Jain Temple
- Jagdish Temple
- Lake Pichola
- Anywhere else?

Accomodation: Mewar Haveli

Day 4

Location: Udaipur & Jaipur

Transport: Overnight train. Journey start: 22:25 Journey Dur: 8hr 5min

Day 5 & 6

Location: Jaipur

Sights:

- Lake Palace
- Amber Fort
- City Palace
- Hawa Mahal
- Nahargarh Fort
- Anywhere else?

Accomodation: Pearl Palace

Day 7

Location: Jaipur & Agra

Transport: Train. Journey start: 06:10 Journey Dur: 4hr 42min

Sights:

- Taj Mahal (sunset)
- Anywhere else?

Day 8

Location: Agra & Delhi

Transport: Train. Journey start: 15:30 Journey Dur: 4hr 25min

Sights:

- Humayun’s Tomb
- Gandhi Smriti
- Dilli Haat market
- India Gate
- Swaminarayan Akshardham temple
- Anywhere else?

Accomodation: ???

Day 9

Location: Delhi & Goa

Transport: Flight. Journey start: 16:50 Journey Dur: 2hr 50min

Day 10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17 & 18

Location: Goa (Patnem beach)

Accommodation: Goyam & Goyam or Ciarans Beach Huts (both look really good)

Sights:

- Butterfly Island
- Old Goa
- Churches
- Dudhsagar Falls
- Anywhere else?

Day 19

Location: Goa (Patnem beach) & Mumbai

Transport: Overnight train. Journey start: 20:55 Journey Dur: 9hr

Day 20

Location: Mumbai

Accommodation: ???

Sights:

- Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
- Jain Temple – Mumbai
- Gateway of India
- Bollywood film?

Day 21 Mumbai & Manchester

We know that the ideal time we spend in each location should probably last months but we want to get a snapshot of places and the cultures so tthat one day we could return to the places that we love.

Thank you in advance for any help or advice that you can give me.

Kind Regards

Kevin Salt