Col and Sam

Heading South…….. Tuesday 2nd February After a lazy morning we packed up, had our last breakfast & checked out of Umaid Mahal. Super Salim was waiting outside & took us on the short journey to the station. This time absolutely no hassle from the station - it was great, we were left to find our own platform, buy snacks and board the train. Just watching the comings & goings on the platform is real entertainment in its self. People drying underwear on piles of luggage, whole families entertaining themselves whilst sat on the platform producing full meals from their luggage, men sleeping & people selling all sorts for the journey. We had booked onto the 2 tier A/C carriage again which was a god send as the lower classes were just a scramble, first come first ... read more

Although we have enjoyed our time in the North of India, we are keen to move to the South sooner than we had first planned. We have discovered that there is much to see & do and we want to ensure we have enough time so we have reorganized our transport & changed our plans slightly. Below is the revised itinerary; Tuesday 2nd February Train Jaipur - Mumbai Train Number 2956 Train Name Jp Bct Supfast Reservation Class 2 Tier A/C (2A) Distance Covered 1159 km Departure Time 1410 hrs Arrival Time 0750 hrs (Wednesday) Berth Number Colin A1/12 (Side Upper) Berth Number Sam A1/11 (Side Lower) Wednesday 3rd February Arrive In Mumbai @ 0750, spend a couple of hours in the city then fly to Kochi in Southern India. Flight Route Mumbai (BOM) - Kochi ... read more

So, we depart for our annual backpacking trip early tommorrow morning. We are all packed, trains & planes are booked and we are ready for off!! For those who are intrested, below is our (if very vague) plan. I intend to update on here as often as I can, but plan to maybe not do it every day as I did for our South America tour as it takes up alot of time & can become a bit of a bind if I am not carefull with it. Anyway, here goes..................... Wednesday 27th January Flight from Manchester, UK to Delhi, India; Depart Terminal 2 Manchester 0640 hrs (Flight AF1469, Air France) Arrive Terminal 2E Charles De Gaulle, Paris 0910 hrs Depart Terminal 2C Charles De Gaulle 1020 hrs (Flight AF 226, Air France) Arrive Terminal 2 ... read more

The Last Week & Beyond. Sorry I haven't put up an update recently, we've been so busy trying to cram as much into our last week as is possible and so even now I am limited on time to fill you in. So what I have done is to condense the last week's diary below and we will fill in the gaps when we get home. Col 18th February After organizing the tour to Machu Picchu for the next day we sepnt time in and around the city of Cusco with its impressive buildings and plazas. 19th February 8am start for a 1 1/2 hour taxi ride over the mountains behind Cusco to Ollantaytambo in the Sacred valley. From Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu Pueblo) by a scenic 2 hour train journey through the Sacred ... read more

17th February Another 7am start as today we were moving on to Cusco, the capital of the Incas. We booked onto a bus leaving Puno at 7.30am, arriving in Cusco at 5.30pm stopping off at various sights on the way and including lunch. The bus was virtually brand new with high, comfortable seats with plenty of legroom. The first stop on the tour was at a pre-Inca museum with artifacts and stone carvings from pre-Inca cultures. The bus then made its way through fantastic scenery to the highest pass on the road at 4,300m backed by high glaciar covered peaks of the Andies. After a buffet lunch the bus passed through a fantastically scenic valley stopping at the ruins of a large Inca settlement with temple and mills and finally at a church built by the ... read more

16th February The minibus arrived at 06.45 am to take us to the docks where we would board a boat for the day trip on Lake Titicaca. The boat this time was impressivley comfortable with coach seats and an upper viewing deck. But again the boat was pretty slow however we had a tour guide to keep us occupied. The first stop after 1 1/2 hours sailing was the Uros floating islands. The boat docked and we were allowed to walk around these ingenious creations. The islands are built up with layers upon layers of thick reeds which grow on the shore of the lake, the whole island is floating and ancored to the bottom with long stakes. The Uros people live their whole lives from the islands fishing, hunting ducks, replenishing the reeds on the ... read more

15th February We woke to drizzle and the views over Lake Titicaca had disaperaed for the morning. Today we were planning to move into Peru by crossing the border outside Copacabana. This meant getting the early boat back from Isla Del Sol to Copacabana then a border crossing bus from there. The walk back down the Inca Staircase was treturous, well polished stones from 1000's of shoes combined with the rain made it hard going but we made it to the boat in one piece. Again the boat journey was slow, the baot was crammed with people and rucksacks, all in all a pretty uncomfortable ride - but a means to an end all the same. On arriving in Copacabana we booked a bus for Puno on the Peruvian shore of Lake Titicaca which would stop ... read more