Finally we were about to set off on foot into the mountains, our first proper foray into the Himalayas. We were already in a wonderful place both physically and mentally; the steep beautiful green valleys, the peaceful monasteries and smiling people made us feel a world away from our angst on the plains of Northern India. The exhilarating down hills and the breathtaking views across impossibly steep slopes had made us happy and relaxed and we were enjoying the wonderful free attitude that had been with us earlier in our trip and which we had lost in the plains of India. [View Full Entry]

---

---

Our plan had been simple, get off the bus in Siliguri early in the morning and get the hell out of the plains, uphill towards Darjeeling and Sikkim. Just anywhere upwards that would take us to cooler air and away from the sweltering, stinking plains. Of course by the time we actually arrive in Siliguri, having had all of ten minutes sleep on the bumpiest road in India, we have no energy to move anywhere. We slope off to a nice quiet hotel, stand under a cold shower for 10 minutes, and collapse onto a comfy bed for some sleep at [View Full Entry]

---

---

The bus drops us at the junction to Shillong, where the road back to Guwahati forks sharply uphill next to a small Hindu temple. It is midday and the sun is beating down on us as we re-load the bikes, which have emerged unscathed from the back of the bus - no damage and only 2 minutes to load and unload at either end, and cheaper than putting them on the train. We vow to use buses from now on if we don’t want to cycle. After a quick feast of fried rice at a small dhaba opposite the temple we [View Full Entry]

---

---

I wake after a fitful sleep on the top bunk of our second class sleeper, still depressed at being on the train, still depressed with the way our trip has been going lately; all the illnesses, the hassles, broken bikes, arguments with each other, this just wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. Is this what I gave up a decent job and life back home for, to travel around India getting pissed off with the place, the people, Erika and now even myself? I wonder about just going home, but to what? Sure it would be good to see [View Full Entry]

---

---

In my imagination Calcutta was a romantic, exotic place; home of the British Raj. I imagined old steamboats chugging up the Houghli River arriving at veranda bungalows. This image was battling beside what I knew was one of the world's most besieged cities, the waves of floods, people, poverty and pollution had caused other travellers to warn us that it was not a place to hang around in. Still it is India's cultural capital; many great authors, academics and cricketers hail from here. Calcutta has not disappointed. Now known as Kalkota it is described as "the City of Joy" or "the [View Full Entry]

---

---

We woke early for our cycle towards Bodh Gaya in Bihar state. But breakfast on the balcony was not as planned since it was raining again, not a good omen. By the time we actually loaded up the bikes ready to push them up and out of the labyrinth of lanes in the old city the rain was just lightly drizzling and all the mud and various droppings in the lanes meant we had to be really careful. We had just got out of the lanes and were cycling along the wet street when I looked up to see Robin screeching [View Full Entry]

---

---

Varanasi is one of the strangest places I have ever been to, a piece of living, breathing history that seems strangely unaffected by the modern world that surrounds it and penetrates it. As we discovered on our way into the city, there is not even a proper road in or out that connects the city to the motorway-style bypass, and in many other ways it felt strangely disconnected in both time and space. Life in the old city and along the ghats of the Ganga continues in much the same the same way that it has for centuries, if not millennia. [View Full Entry]

---

---

The approach road to Orchha was really lovely, it wound up and down on gentle slopes passing big shady trees and through fields that were dotted with ruined pavilions and old temples. We arrived tired as lunch was definitely overdue. We planned to stay for two nights in Orchha to have one full day there and then get back on the road to put our new plan of cycling and renewed motivation and enthusiasm into practice. But the first impression of Orchha quickly put this idea on the back burner, we knew it was a place that merited a longer stop [View Full Entry]

---

---

“For the animals shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complicated than ours, they move finished and completed, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings, they are other nations - caught with ourselves in a net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.” Henry Beston The cycle out of Jaipur was really not bad, we even met another Indian Cyclist on a very old road bike, and it was [View Full Entry]

---

---

We were really tired and down when we set off from towards Jaipur. The early mornings at Bharatpur had taken their toll, combined with feeling low about the state of the planet and to top it all Robin was suffering the effects of a dodgy samosa. Still we loaded up and set off anticipating the benefits of some cycling for our bodies and states of mind, unfortunately these never materialised. The road was being “four-laned” and so road works dogged us the entire way to Jaipur. The surface was rough and bumpy; every other vehicle seemed to have a claxon which [View Full Entry]

---

---