Blogs from India, Asia - page 1926

Arrived in Bangalore from Hampi at about 7 in the morning, desperate to get back to civilisation and a big city. Meaning that it was a real shame that I arrived in Bangalore. It would probably be a nice place to live, actually - clean, fairly modern, lots of shops. As a place to visit, though, it's pretty underwhelming. Bland. No personality whatsoever. And notably less smiley than most other places I've visited in India. That said, the Lalbagh Gardens were very nice - big municipal gardens with thousands of different plants from all over the world. And the tiffin house just down from my hotel did the best dosas I've had since arriving in India - absolutely spectacularly good. And, for that matter, the best grape juice I've had in India. Actually, as an aside, ... read more

As my 12-hour bumpy bus ride from Delhi to Mcleod Ganj came to its gradual end, winding its way up the steep mountain road that was about half as wide as the bus was (you figure it out...), I couldn't help but hear the theme music from "Jurassic Park" playing in my head. Watching the surrounding countryside pass by in the early morning light gave me that familiar feeling of unfamiliarity which I've come to enjoy from traveling. Mountains, canyons, lush greenery, waterfalls, soaring falcons... yup, I was in a very different place from Boston. The glow cast by the rising sun helped to amplify this sense of awe and wonderment, and I half expected a herd of brachiasaurus to appear around the next corner, craning their long necks to reach the overhanging foliage. Mcleod Ganj ... read more

And so we left behind the comfort of the Hotel Pearl Palace in Jaipur and headed to Pushkar - a small town surrounding a holy lake. No autorickshaws in this place so hopes were high of a peaceful, relaxing time in Pushkar. Well as soon as we got of the bus, those hopes were partially quashed, as a good dozen hotel reps surround you as you try to get your bags of the bus with its exhaust almost in your mouth! now we'd decided on somewhere before we got off the bus and so just strode purposefully away to our hotel. And so the next day we went into the centre of Pushkar - about 2 mins walk from the outskirts of Pushkar! It really is a small place, and while it is more relaxed there ... read more

Well what can I say as we head towards another stunning beach - it's a hard life but someone has to do it and it might as well be us... A couple of hours later in a taxi we arrive at Palolem Beach in south Goa. The beach itself is set in a bay with a rocky headland at either end and in between are countless palm trees and beautiful soft sand - oh and of course a thousand or so beach huts and bars. The huts vary in price from about 200 rupees a day to over a thousand, we opted for a hut with a bathroom for 800 which turned out to be a very wise investment... The atmosphere in Palolem was quite a bit different from Anjuna and a lot livelier although it ... read more

After leaving Pushkar we made our way to the capital Delhi where we met our Indian friends. Exciting to be in the City and to stay with a lovely family in a real house again.(THE kUTTY'S) The highlight of this visit was our trip to Rishikesh. This is another Holy town set in the pituresque mountains and the start of the Himalayers. This was the town the Beatles spent 6 weeks chilling out, meditating and waiting for inspiraration from a higher source. Most recently Brad Pitt came alone and actually stayed 5 minutes from our camp. He also took part in exactly the same white water rafting tour we made. We began our day at 6.30 am and initially went jungle trekking, here we saw a beautiful waterfall and Nadja wearing some very odd looking trousers. ... read more