Bonjour famille et amis, comme la plus part d entre vous saviez, mon trip en inde commencait a varanasi, la ville sainte de l induisme et du buddhisme. Cette ville ou les gens y vivent de la meme facon qu il y a 2000 ans ou le moyen age s entre mele avec le present. Au coeur du vieux cartier, 1 km2, y est cache un temple indu ou se trouve le lingam de shiva, un peu comme le linceuil de jesus...recouvert d un toi de 800kg d or. Les etrangers n y sont pas admis. Des hommes armes avec des [View Full Entry]

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Akbar's Masoleum and Agra Fort Finally after all the hassle(car crash and fucked traffic from Delhi), I am at Agra, which is like 200km away from New Delhi. It was kinda luck as I just got to realise that Taj Mahal closes on Fridays and today is Thursday 3pm. Had to rush again. This is the most hectic time schedule ever in India after the lazy 8 full days spree at Mumbai. First to Akbar's Masoleum where his tomb lays there, then to Taj Mahal. Agra fort pictures you see here are actually for tomorrow. THIS IS BACKBLOGGING. I just though [View Full Entry]

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Taj Mahal marks the last and most important Visit in my entire India trip. I swear I never leave India without going there and I did it. Though many shits happened along the way...first heard about riots in New Delhi due to politician uprisings, then no train tickets @ mumbai, then no bus operations in Delhi due to Shiva's birthday and their metro subway construction inconveniences. I'll say its worth the visit in your life. [View Full Entry]

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As we write this blog we are sitting on Lucky’s Restaurant rooftop with an unobstructed view of the magnificent Taj Mahal, imposing itself on the horizon. This is almost at the end of our tour in India, only two more nights. A week ago we arrived in Delhi, and found the streets (round Main Bazaar rd, where all the backpackers stay) a shithole. The following morning we get to the railway station, destination Jaipur, with plenty of time to spare only to find out it’s unfortunately the wrong station! So we dash across town to the correct one. Only just make [View Full Entry]

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Varanasi was a pretty awesome place, despite the hoards of touts trying to extract whatever money they could from us. As usual the main streets were pretty hectic and frustrating at times, but the ghats and side streets provided much needed relief and felt peaceful and spiritual. The burning ghats were amazing and we were fortunate enough to witness the process. We learnt that a body typically takes 2-4 hours to burn using the traditional method of wood and around 30 mins using the modern electric method. In one of the traditional fires we saw, a charred leg stuck out of [View Full Entry]

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We arrived into the bustling city of Mumbai (formally Bombay) on the 2nd of July. The phrase organised chaos comes to mind when you witness the workings of such a hectic city and yet with all the noise, rubbish and extremely persistent sales men the city has a certain charm! On our first full day we were invited to play as extras in an upcoming Bollywood movie called Rascals, so we jumped at this opportunity. 2hrs later we were in the wardrobe department; the dress can only be described as bad 80s disco ware. We took part in various night club [View Full Entry]

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Agra struck me as a big urban zoo. I saw monkeys running around outside the train station, an elephant being washed by the side of the road, eagles flying above the fort, donkeys, horses and camels transporting goods, and of course the usual buffaloes, cows and oxen dodging the traffic. As we were only here for the day we left all our luggage at the train station storage and hired a rickshaw driver to take us around. We firstly visited the very impressive Taj Mahal and paid a guide to tell us all about it. It was very interesting and we [View Full Entry]

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We ruilden het met forten en paleizen bezaaide Rajasthan voor het touristische Agra en haar mysterieuze Taj Mahal. Het wereldberoemde mausoleum werd in 1631 gebouwd in opdracht van de Mughal-heerser Shah Jahan als liefdesmonument voor zijn overleden echtgenote. Dat het zijn veertiende (!) vrouw was, dat de bouwwerken bijna 20 jaar in beslag namen, dat er 20000 man en meer dan 1000 olifanten aan meewerkten en dat materialen uit heel Azie gebruikt werden, zijn pittige details. Het gerucht gaat dat Shah Jahan oorspronkelijk een exacte kopij van de Taj Mahal in zwart marmer wou bouwen aan de overkant van de rivier [View Full Entry]

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Hello all ... Think i will keep this one brief as got much more to write about from Nepal, which is where i am now. Will write about Nepal in a few days time so keep your beedy eyes out for that one!! OK - Dave arrived in Delhi on Monday June 30th - Definatley the most random place we have met up. Wanted to cram in as much as week could so book a taxi for 12 days to take us to Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Pushkah, Agra and finally get a night train to Varanasi. Private taxi was cool, driver [View Full Entry]

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To my esteemed friends, family, and other readers, I am leaving in 5 hours now for a trek into the himalayas. Or at least that's the goal. The first step is an early morning bus to Haridwar, one of the more holy Hindu sites where I can bathe in the torrent Ganges. From there, we will attempt to make it into the himalayas, with suitable destinations being the Kerdanath Temple, Nandadevi Peak (or around) or the Kauri Pass. We don't have gear, correct clothing/footwear, or any idea how we're going to make it happen. If all else fails, we'll stay in [View Full Entry]

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