Ive finally arrived at Indias premier attraction, The Taj Mahal in Agra. The Taj is admittedly very beautiful, although I must confess that I haven’t been completely blown away by it. While most people know the story behind the building of the Taj, I will repeat it briefly for those of you who don’t. First the Essex version….. Once upon a time there was this kingy like geezer who’s missus kicked the bucket, he was well miffed and after bawling like a baby for a few days he builds this chuffing great building and stuffs the ex ball and chain in [View Full Entry]

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Being as im currently playing catch up with my blogs, this sort of puts me in a position to reflect on recent current events, ie the not too distant batch of cowardly attacks by those pathetic Islamic militants on innocent civilians. Its quite disconcerting to think that only 36 hours previously, Heather and myself were walking in some of those areas where the bombs exploded. Other travellers who we have met along the way were also in Jaipur at the time, thankfully all of them were nowhere near when the bombs went off. However, my heart goes out to the families [View Full Entry]

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Once a city becomes a major movie location then this usually means that your going to be bombarded with all kinds of tacky merchandise and sales patter, regardless of the fact that the movie was never a major hit and that the film in question was shot here over 20 years ago. Im referring of course to the James Bond film Octopussy, which used many of the local hotels as filming locations. Everywhere you go you are confronted by Octopussy shops, Octopussy Film Showings and Octopussy memorabilia, you would almost think that this city didn’t have a history before Roger Moore [View Full Entry]

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This isnt one of the most impressive cities ive visited over the last few weeks, although it does seem that as I move further North, the cleaner the cities tend to be. (Is this because all the rivers run Southwards??? ) A modern day metropolis in the state of Gujarat, Ahmedabad just gets on with its day to day routine like every other city in this part of the world. There isn’t a great deal to see or do here and while im always waxing lyrical about saving money and having budget days, I found this city to be ….. well….. [View Full Entry]

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After visiting what feels like 600,000 temples or there abouts, even the thought of visiting another one, no matter how impressive it is, is enough to want to make you self immolate yourself! So there was I thinking that maybe I would start to suffer from the dreaded 'Cave Overload Syndrome' after my visit to Ellora, however, as you saw from my previous expressions of mirth and glee, visiting these kinds of historical sites simply leaves you wanting for more. During my stint at Ellora, climbing and clambering over rocks, statues and ledges that would induce bouts of vertigo even in [View Full Entry]

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Yes ok, I know I said id had enough of temples and the like, however the caves at Ellora really are something else. Around 30km from Aurangabad you will find one of India’s crown jewels. Getting there is another thing, as every bus that goes this way seems to be packed with locals who seem to use the buses just for the sake of going for a ride. Since ive been here in India ive always tried to remain calm and collected, however this was to be the day that I finally lost my rag and flipped out. Trying to board [View Full Entry]

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Well, fortune has smiled on me yet again. Thanks to the renowned inefficiency of the Indian rail network, I didn’t miss my stop! The journey from Hyderabad to Aurangabad involves you waking up at 3:45am or thereabouts so that you don’t miss your stop at 4:05am. I set 2 alarms as I usually do, but they simply didn’t go off…..either of them, which left me feeling well miffed when I woke up and realised that it was 5:10am and I was well and truly up the proverbial creek without a paddle. The train was due to stop at its final stop [View Full Entry]

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It doesn’t rain it pours…… then again I suppose how long can you get away with travelling in a developing country before getting some ailment or another??? Limited to one foot for the last day or so, ive been hobbling my way round Hyderabad, (much to the amusement of the indigenous population) determined not to allow some expired freshwater mollusc remnant to have the last laugh … ohh no….that river crossing at Hampi may well of been convenient, but I wouldn’t recommend doing it bare foot….. nasty things can happen, trust me… I know&hellip [View Full Entry]

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Ive come to the conclusion that the domain of the blog must surely be confined to that of solo travellers or couples who share the same barmy blogging interest. Ive spent so much time drinking beer, socialising and getting to know ferrets over the last few days that I now get the feeling that I am letting my fan club down (3 people and a 15 year old cat called Edward) that I better take my proverbial finger out of my proverbial bottom and try to do some catching up!!! The journey up to Hospet was great….. The last time I [View Full Entry]

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Sometimes it really pays (literally) to get sidetracked and quite simply spend the day somewhere that you never intended to go anywhere near in the first place! I was seriously debating the logic of spending 6 hours on a bus just to see one small town, however, the bus was air conditioned and I didn’t have anything else to do, so I decided to bite the bullet, dump my main rucksack in the cloakroom at the train station and go. This decision was made even easier being as I had to check out of my hotel at 8am and my train [View Full Entry]

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