Hiya Guys Mumbai - Slum dog Millionaire city, just a fleeting visit on my way home - 2 nights and I full day!. It is huge over 18 million people crammed into this peninsular of originally 6 islands once linked together by causeways now one heaving mass of roads buildings and humanity. People have come to Mumbai from all over India to find work and be a part of its success, It is the commercial and financial centre of the sub continent and was first founded by the Portuguese when vasco de garma sailed into its waters, It is on the coast of the Arabian sea and soon became crucial in the trade routes and flourished when first the East India company was involved and then the Brits took charge!! The Uk has left its ... read more

We are moving north and west through the lands of the camel trains, the old spice routes across from the far east to Europe making for the Thar desert. Rajasthan is a dry state ( water , not drink!!! ) the far NW sometimes gets less than 5 inches of a rain a year some years none others the monsoons fill the lakes and rivers and replenishes the water tables. After the fun of Holi we looked forward to the changing landscape from growing wheat and farming the land, to the sand dunes, the nomadic travellers snake charmers and musicians and the mysteries of the desert . WE would be just over a 100 klms from the Pakistani border and we noticed increased army activity and the roar of many jets overhead. We stayed in the ... read more

Hi everyone! You mustn’t believe all I manage to write in the blog so disregard the last sentence of blog 2 If you remember what it was!), we are not in camel camp yet, that is later this week!. Udaipur was our next stop. We are very lucky that we are in India for the second most important date in their calendar, after Dwali the whole country celebrates Holi. The legend behind this festival is again long , complex and convoluted , if I say a father/demon who wants to be a god, his son who wants to worship another, his daughter who is protected from disaster by a cloke , father tries to murder son 3 times but fails but manages to kill his daughter instead by mistake, in a fire and the demon dies. ... read more

Well here we go again back in travelling mode. This time no months of planning , no build up of excitement, yes I know its only a tiny winy trippette but you would think there might be a tingle somewhere! Perhaps it will explode hopefully very soon! I Arrived in Delhi on Wednesday morning (10th( after an eight hour overnight sleepless flight. But managed to catch up on three films so that was a bonus. I wasn’t sure what to expect so it was rather a surprise that the airport is brand spanking new, and the surrounding area is under massive development - must be the 8% GDP that India enjoys. My first afternoon I actually spent by the pool relaxing , I was to meet the rest of the group early that evening , and ... read more

Well we are in cowboy and Indian country, the wild west where many battles were fought, the pioneers made their presence felt and films galore have been made. If the smile was still on my face, then it would widen considerably in awe, as we saw for the first time the grand canyon . What a sight and how beautiful it was . Our journeys to the canyon where we stayed for 2 days and then on to Sedona some 150 miles to the south, were a bit of an adventure. The weather conditions chanege very quickly in this part of the world , we were travelling between 5- 6000 feet and one minute we were in fine conditions the next it got pretty scarry with with heavy snow falls coming so fast we could hardly ... read more