Bonner

I’m back, and this time the blog will be finished. I’ve set myself a week to do it! The ending is dedicated to my avid reader…Jimmy Bonner!!! As I have just got my first set of wheels I thought I would include this memory of us, a rickshaw, the Delhi roads and a learner driver. There we were on the way to the British High Commission one day in a rickshaw when we stumbled upon a learner driver. I think this was the one and only leaner I saw. I can’t think why you would need someone to teach you to drive over there. The only skill needed is the ability to dodge all the other rubbish drivers. So anyway, the learner was crawling along in front of us (Jimmy: about the speed you enjoy on ... read more

I've added 50 photos so check out my gallery!... read more

Hi everyone! You're not going to believe this but I'm home! After a series of unpleasant incidents culminating in a man trying to mug me on Chowpatty beach, Mumbai I decided to leg it to the airport and managed to get on the next flight home. A big thank you goes out to Vikash, the manager of British Airways at Mumbai airport who spent 2 hours trying to get me on the next flight...oh, and for the cups of tea! All is well and I'm back in Forfar! Due to popular demand I am going to finish off the blog, especially after my horoscope (made in India) said I should stop leaving many a work half done! Ok, so I left you in Agra...after Agra we took the train to Delhi. On the train we met ... read more

Arrived in Agra on the 3rd October at 4am after that bus journey I mentioned and the train. We planned to stay in the station until daylight then get a hotel but I was like an anti christ as I was so tired so we took a richshaw to a hotel at 4am. Appologies to Swarup if you are reading this! You had to put up with a lot! After going to sleep at 4.30am, we had had 3 frigging wake up calls from reception by 10.30am. 1) "Do you want room service?" - NO 2)"Do you want water?' - NO 3) "Your taxi driver is here waiting for you" - what on earth? Go away and let us sleep for heaven's sake! What is wrong with these people?!! Headed for the Taj Mahal but were ... read more

continued...let me tell you about making the permit to access certain areas of Sikkim... as Joel and Moses work for the goverment, they assured us that they could sort us out with the permits so they took us in the morning to the offices. We arrived there and they were like something out of an old police tv series. The desks were old and rusty, no computers in sight, paper files eveywhere and held together with cloth and string! Everyone was sitting around chatting to each other and the others not at their desks were in the canteen playing cards and board games over cups of tea. This was very normal we were told. The first step was to find the man in charge of permits. After checking in around 5 offices we found him. We ... read more

Hello! My goodness, I have lot of catching up to do... Ok I'm gonna start from where I left off in the last week of september... The votes were counted and Darjeeling's very own Prashant won Indian Idol and the town was celebrating and celebrating and celebrating! I have never seen anything like it in my life! People (children, old people, police, the army and teachers) were marching and driving round and round the streets from morning till night! The schools had days off. TV cameras everywhere. I have some great video footage! They were shouting at us " foreigner, who do you say?" and we had to respond "prashant" or else be stoned to death! Met a lovely German couple who were working as medical student in the south. It was great to talk to ... read more

Hello! I arrived in Darjeeling on Saturday. After arriving in New Jalpaiguri train station we got a four wheel drive to Darjeeling. It was a 3 hours drive up hill the whole way passing through gorgeous scenery. Unfortunatley we had 2 rather large people sitting next to us taking up 3/4 of the seat! The temperature in Darjeeling is lovely. It's a bit like the weather at home IF we get a summer! We're staying in Andy's guest house which is spotlessly clean (makes a nice change). Unfortunately we had to move room this morning as the room we had was booked so now we don't have a shower, just a good old fashioned bucket to use for showering (I feel like I'm back in the Sandwell hospital accommodation!). Darjeeling is going crazy as tonight is ... read more

I'm writing to you from an internet cafe in Guwahati (Assam), back to where I was on Tuesday. We had to come back through here to get to our next destination...Darjeeling! Looking forward to many nice cups of tea there. Yestarday we travelled in the area surrounding Shillong where we saw the 'Elephant falls' (waterfalls) and Shillong peak (viewpoint from which you can see Bangladesh). There's a huge milatary presence around here and they are quite strict about security. After our tour aorund Shillong we headed for Lake Umiam. We stayed in a resort on the lake last night and had a very lazy afternoon and evening and morning today. The scenery is stunning, the nicest party of India I've see by far! Went out on the Lake on a pedalo this morning. Didn't have too ... read more

I've covered a few miles since my last entry! The last time I wrote I was Bhubaneswar, Orissa. I left Orissa on Monday morning at 6am on the train to Kolkata. We booked tickets through an agent but didn't really check the tickets properly before travelling. They had me down as male. The conductor came round and wasn't accepting the ticket. I had my first proper taste of the Indian way of sorting things out...Swarup asked to talk to the guy outside so they disappeared between compartments. The conductor accepted a 50Rs bribe instead of paying for a new ticket which would have been 400Rs. Later another conductor came round and was not so corrupt and we ended up having to pay again! The train was ok but we weren't in the AC compartment which we ... read more

Bhubaneswar, Orissa Firstly, I apologise for the delay with news, I know many people have been checking my blog waiting for an entry since I left. The internet access is not as widely available as I anticipated! I have arrived safe and sound! It was a pretty eventful journey, didn't think I was gonna make the flight to Kolkata as my Edinburgh- Heathrow flight was delayed but I did. Unfortunately my luggage wasn't so lucky. So there I was arriving with the clothes I was standing in with a travel pillow, book, make up (yes!!), fudge and shortbread!Note to self: pack useful stuff in hand luggage in the future! I managed to get together some toiletries but finding them was not easy!My luggage arrived last night, 5 days later. I was managing very well without ... read more