"I wondered where the waste water go to?" Karlhans the German guy I met question, he was one of those not dressed like hippie and would aware of this kind of question. Yes...I didn't see any river nor any channels for drainage, so...it could be anywhere lower than the town of Pushkar, it just immersed into the desert I guessed. Like Ajmer, Pushkar was another pilgrim center, but...for the Hindus, "no pilgrimages is considered complete without a dip in the holy Pushkar lake" its said! And the lake supposed to be a pretty, the pearl of the town. But...to my surprised, [View Full Entry]

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That what I would call an old city, small lanes snaked around, criss-crossed each others, no idea what the scene would be like around the corner, got yourself completely lost but wouldn't complained, that was the main ingredient for an old city, and they was the old city in Ajmer(@450m). The city was founded in the 7th century by Raja Ajai Pal Chauhan, Ajmer once was a Hindu empire ,but nowadays it was a moslem city with many old houses inside the dense city. Although there were some Hindu temple in town, but no one aware of their existing. The action [View Full Entry]

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The pink city, Jaipur(@450m) was another traffic crazy city in India. The kind of place I disliked as touts were everywhere, taxi or rickshaw drivers followed you to the end of the world, more persistence than my shadow! Jaipur was a heavy transposition center, as the gateway into Rajasthan, action was 24hrs around the Station Road. And the number of hotel was abundant, but most of them were only served Indian, no wondered all the budget accommodation that mentioned in guidebook were full, and the price was not as budget as it should be. It took me awhile to secured a [View Full Entry]

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22/1/10 Churu(@300m) was one of the gateway into Shekhawati area, the Land of Haveli. A small town with many palatial houses around the main bazar. and an old fort nearby, but only part of the wall still existed. Shekhawati area in the old day was an important trading center between the Arabian Sea and the Ganga region, it benefited many local business men and people were wealthy, they began to built grand houses for their family which decorated with fascinating colour paintings and designs, although not in much artistic way, but the abundant quantity was a feast for the eyes! Most [View Full Entry]

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20/1/10 Didn't remembered there was any restrictions for choosing accommodation in India 5 years ago. But this time since I started my journey, I did suspected something wasn't right, most of the time they just answered "full" when I asked for a room, together with a dismissal look with disgust, which made you feel really bad being turn away like this. I was wondering why they wrote everything in English outside their door if they only accepted Indian tourist? The only reason I could come up was mentally by advertising in English they might became higher class than the other hotel [View Full Entry]

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17/1/10 Turban heads topped the skyline in dense street after entered into Punjab region. And with more fashionable colour in fabric, men decorated their head with their favourite colour, pink, violet, green, blue yellow, you name it. I saw a man dyeing colour for cotton clothes infront his shop, inside stack of multi colour turban walled the whole shop front. Sikh men made up part of the scene in Punjab. I was planned to stop over in Chandigarh(@200m), said it was the cleanest and greenest city in India, but when into the city area, it took more than 30 minutes and [View Full Entry]

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11/1/10 Travelled by bus in this part of India reminded me a lot of Yunnan and Sichuan in China. The curving up down mountain road through valley after valley. But here seem more prettier in sight, as there was less cables wiring and telecom towers, and houses usually painted in adorable colours and more in harmony with the nature . Bus serviced in between city were more faster and quite often ignored passenger on the road, I guessed it was because those were state owned business, and all the conductors were issued a small machine to print out ticket, no cheating! [View Full Entry]

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5/1/10 "North India under fog blanket" , one headline in the Hindustan Times. I left UP and into Uttarakhand, through Tanakpur I travelled up mountain, and as I'd expected, once above 900m sea level I saw the welcoming sight, sunny and clear. This is the Kumaon region right next to the Nepal border. Champawat(@1650m) was the old capital of the Chand dynasty, but not much left from the ancient palace could be seen. But the ruins of the 14th century Baleshwar temple although looked un-appealing, but the stone sculptures and carving was amazing. The structure of the temple complex was the [View Full Entry]

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A new year, and a new start. Landed myself in India yesterday in Gorakhpur. But first need to made the tiring journey through Bhairawa(@200m) and Sunauli, both were uninteresting place, with the sudden rain the night before, the whole plain was covered by fog, the Nepal didn't wanted to show herself to me anymore, so I made my departure, the border crossing was easy and straightforward with no nonsense hassle, the immigration office in Indian side even more than a 100m further down the commercial street, just a table under a roof, easy to mistook as a lottery vendor! No bank [View Full Entry]

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24/12/09 Bhaktapur(@1350m) was even better than Kathmandu for the medieval scene. Although only 30km from away, it need 90 mins by local bus. The outstanding 5-storey pagoda temple Nyatapola dominated the skyline when our bus approaching the town from the highway. Almost all the buildings inside the old quarter were dated, streets were mostly stone paved or laid with brickwork, it said most of the constructions had been ruined by the earthquake in 1934, I couldn't imagine how beautiful Bhaktapur should be before that time. The centre of attraction was the Durbar Square and its near neighbour Taumadhi Tole where the [View Full Entry]

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