Blogs from Punjab, India, Asia

Bon bien ca l'air que mon voyage tire a sa fin; je suis dans mon dernier pays! Comment decrire la fameuse, l'immense, la complexe, l'epeurante Inde?!? J'ai tellement eu de mauvais commentaires, de mises en garde de plein de gens differents (meme des indiens) que j'etais un peu stressee et craintive de l'Inde. Je me rassurais en me disant que j'etais avec Nicole et on avait un guide aussi qui allait nous accompagner tout le long. Finalement, apres plus d'une semaine en territoire indien, je me dis qu'il n'y a rien la. Je crois que tous les pays visites auparavant m'ont tres bien prepares pour ici; j'ai eu le temps d'assimiler differentes realites asiatiques au cours des derniers 4 mois ce qui fait que je ne suis pas traumatisee ici plus qu'ailleurs. On est arrive a ... read more

India 9 - 'An Indian Swansong' Mumbai-Udaipur-Ranakpur-Jodhpur-Nagaur-Roopangarh-Jaipur-Ranthambore Keoladeo-Fatehpur Sikri-Chambal Agra-Delhi-Shimla-Dharamsala-Pong-Amritsar Pong and Amritsar 15th March 2013 'An Indian Swansong' We're going to Pong. I’m not at all surprised; we have been travelling for nearly five weeks now and it’s been quite warm every day. But never fear, the dhobi wallah has returned our laundry and we’re as fresh as a daisy once more. It’s the town of Pong we’re heading for today. It derives its living from local resources of fish in the huge reservoir and lumber on the hillsides, and its lakeshore hotel provides a convenient stopover on our taxi ride... read more

Our northern tour is almost at an end. We've managed to hit all the highlights, some were better experiences than others. We have been taken to too many carpet cooperatives and handicraft studios, where we were assured that their items were unique and not available anywhere else. One guide rushed us through the Taj Mahal, so he could take us to a marble inlay shop, where I had a minor meltdown and everyone in the shop kind of stepped back a few paces! It saved Jane from having to buy a wall hanging. We took the Shaheed Express from Delhi to Amritsar yesterday. Our driver miscalculated the time it would take to get to the Delhi Railway Station from Agra where we were on Wednesday and we had a Mr. Toad's wild ride on National Highway ... read more

By the time we woke up the lovely family had left and i was gutted i didn't get the opportunity to say good bye and tell them how lovely it was to meet them. We arrived in Amritsar at about 7.30am and we walked to a hotel that we had seen on the internet but that had also been recommended by the lonely planet. We had a look at the rooms and thought we would be a able to check in as the one we wanted was free but in order to do that they wanted a half day charge!!! We refused and told them that we had been travelling around Asia for nearly 6 months and never had this. He got a hit funny and told us that he did tell us and I said ... read more

YOU CAN CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE IT, THEN GO BACK TO THE BLOG OR GO THROUGH THE PHOTOS (63 TOTAL - CLICK ON THE NUMBERS AT THE BOTTOM OR ARROWS IN TOP CORNERS) IN THAT ENLARGED FORMAT. I PUT LOTS OF INFORMATION IN THE PHOTO CAPTIONS SO YOU CAN SKIP THE NARRATIVE, JUST LOOK AT THE ENLARGED PHOTOS AND CAPTIONS AND YOU'LL STILL GET MORE INFORMATION THAT YOU EVER WANTED.TO RETURN TO THE BLOG ENTRY, JUST CLICK YOUR BACK BUTTON OR ON THE NAME OF THE BLOG, BELOW THE NUMBERS ON THE LEFT. Indian Wedding Chandigarh, the Punjab, India December 26, 2012 - January 2, 2013 After two weeks touring Rajasthan (see previous travel blog: http://www.travelblog.org/fred.php?id=766822), the event that originally brought us to India took place in C... read more

After hopping on a few prop planes for short flights, we touched down in the Punjab. We were still in India, but it did not feel like India. We were in a valley near the Himilayan foothills and everything seemed more Third World. Due to the proximity to Pakistan, there was a large military presence and more security checkpoints. (Due to a recent hanging of a Pakistani terrrorist in India, there has been hightened security throughout India, especially in the hotels.) The people of the Punjab look very different from the Indians in Rajasthan...taller, broader, different skin color, beards and Sikh turbans. We stayed in Amritsar and noticed less animals in the streets and much less trash. We struggled with the air quality, despite the cleaner environment and surrounding agricultural communities. From our hotel, we were ... read more

Delhi Pitstop Although marginally less chaotic than travelling in sleeper class, the long overnight trip from Jaisalmer to Delhi was still punctuated by occasional confusion as people got into the wrong bunks or into wrong carriages at various points throughout the night. We did however at least manage to get more sleep than is usually the case and so arrived in Delhi ready to face poverty, pollution, traffic queues, Diwali preparations and the inevitable hoard of tuk-tuk drivers trying to charge quadruple to make a short trip across town. To manage the latter, we did find a prepaid autorickshaw booth outside New Delhi Station, but having paid for a ticket, trying to find a driver willing to take us at the normal fare proved somewhat of a challenge! Eventually we found one guy who didn't speak ... read more