Tigers and the Taj

In a few weeks time, I will be in a different world. With no doubt all my senses on full alert. After the success of my operation last year. I had wanted to return to the old me. I used to love to travel and explore, exciting new places. Whilst I was ill, I struggled with the trips we took. In fact, some of them are our worst memories of that time. I couldn’t even visit our apartment in Spain this year, because of the memories.

A trip to China was also cancelled during that time, and we thought about rebooking this year. But I wanted to do a more exciting trip, so we booked a small tour of India, taking in lots of key sights and lots of wildlife to keep Hubby happy. After hours of deliberation we settled on a trip ( like this) that includes lots of tiger safari's, a train trip and luxury hotels added to all the famous landmarks like the Taj Mahal.

But unknown to us last July, all visits to see the tigers in India were stopped by a court order. So the tigers part and the train were removed from our itinerary. The carefully chosen hotels went out of the window, as the tour was changed . It looked like we were going to be staying here, at a hotel that can only be compared to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

We would be eating with the Maharajah and taking a step back in time to the 1930’s .

So after the disappointment and uncertainty, we decided we were still going to go ahead with the trip.

Imagine my surprise when I received our tickets yesterday, to find the Courts had removed the ban just the day before and our original itinerary was now in place.

Now begins my favourite part of any holiday, all the planning and packing. It’s going to be hard to choose suitable clothing. I always pack very light and this time I want to really par back what we are taking as part of our carefully chosen tour includes a walking tour of New Delhi with former street children. The Salaam Baalak Trust support and look after street children. Included in our tour package was a note that the trust would be grateful for any things we could donate for the children.

During a tour to the largest township in south Africa, Khayelitsha. I wasn’t expecting to take such a scary trip, deep into the township, but we did a private tour and where taken into schools and private homes.

I felt totally inadequate with the pens, sweets and bubbles we had bought the night before to take with us. To see the delight in the children's faces when the teacher had them come up one by one to be given a biro was heart-breaking.

So this time I would like to take a selection of the things they have asked for. If anyone has watched the recent TV programme about India, you will know how delighted the youngsters are with a “label”. One lad, was so proud of the worst copy of a Man Utd football shirt I had ever seen. So I have put a shoot out on Facebook for some nice clothes and I will be looking for some small toys, and bits and bobs to pack the cases out with. The only problem is, the tour is on our last day of our tour, so we will have to travel around with all the donations in our bags for the entire trip. And let’s put it this way, my husband isn’t in any way as charitable as I am. But he will be the first one with tears in his eyes, listening to the children when they talk about their lives. I said to him it is better to give than receive. To which he came back with the expected sexual comment !

I was delighted to find out this week we don’t need to take any malaria medication, just preventative measures. However I found out we are best to have a cocktail of immunisations. So we lucked out when I didn’t have them at the travel clinic I was referred to by my GP. (They cost a fortune and I knew hubby was very reluctant, as all his workmates go to India with no preventative health measures.) I told the clinic I would check with my GP surgery to see if they would give them to us on the NHS, and bingo we can. So we saved ourselves a small fortune.

I will share with you later, what scrapping supplies I am taking with me to journal our trip. I have also bought an amazing camera lens bag, that I want to share with you, that is perfect for shoots and traveling.