21st January 2009 cont... ...on the bus from Jodhpur, we were headed west toward the sandcastle city of Jaisalmer. This was not originally on our route plan but we heard the calls of the Camels. A less exciting (i.e safer) bus journey, but Hayley had to keep her wits about her to avoid the constant spitting of the guy sat above her! Not nice. We arrived around 1730. The touts here deserve credit - they join the bus one stop before Jaisalmer to wear you down with their offers of tours, hotels, camel safaris....They're a very persistent bunch! Getting off of [View Full Entry]

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Apologies for the lonnnng wait, but there are excuses again....its been a busy (and remote...) few days... 19th January 2009 Waking up at 6am in Udaipur, as we were on the move once again, we grabbed an autorickshaw and headed at high speed through narrow streets to the bus station. When we bought our 'Deluxe Tickets', we were shown an accompanying picture of "our" bus...a brand new, shiny luxury A/C coach. Naturally, we boarded a run down, dusty shell of a bus, which was actually very comfortable. Lucky, considering the 6 hour journey ahead. The trip started as if the driver [View Full Entry]

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Howdy once again! As we mentioned briefly last time, we are in Udaipur; City Of Lakes, Venice of The East....or where 'Octopussy' was filmed...you choose! We have been here for 4 days now, and we are set to pack up our rucksacks once again and move on to Jodhpur, around 5 hours further north, tomorrow. 15th January 2009 We arrived - on time! - in Udaipur at 0730, after sharing a 4 birth carriage with an Astro(solar) Physicist! We had an AMAZING conversation - mostly us saying "oh right", "wow" and "interesting"....and not really understanding what he was talking about. This [View Full Entry]

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We are now sat in Udaipur having just spent a couple of days in Ahmedabad, the capital of the Gujarat region. As we have reached the halfway point of our time in India, and as we have had a relatively quiet couple of days, we thought we would try to describe some of our thoughts on the everyday India that we have experienced. This is kind of our 'exhale' after the 'deep breath' of landing in India! We'd read lots about what to expect here, but we don't think anything can fully prepare you for the utter chaos that is this [View Full Entry]

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...and in true British bus style, you wait for a new blog to appear and then 2 come at once! The first thing you notice when you arrive in Mumbai is how different it is from everywhere else on the sub-continent. Its almost like landing in another country; no urinating in the street, no spitting, SOME females, and an apparent infrastructure in place. Of course, with all this comes the inevitable cost difference from elsewhere! The thing that stands out the most though, is how proud the people of Mumbai seem to be of their city - maybe this is due [View Full Entry]

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Time for an update as it has been a whole 5 days since the last one....well, it's been a mixed bag since we left Varanasi and apologies if this one is a bit dull but this is as much a diary for us to look back on and not everyday is an adventure. However, this next entry will be entertaining in a comedy of errors kind of way... 5th January 2009 We had a long walk along the Ghats in Varanasi one final time, before heading to the train station to catch our overnight train to Bhopal, a city in central(ish) [View Full Entry]

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Hello again! Firstly, thank you for all the lovely mesages (and the message from Adam...), they are all very much appreciated so keep them coming! We have tried phoning home a couple of times but the time difference is proving tricky....for anyone interested, to know the time here, just turn your watch or clock upside down (NB: This DOES NOT Work on a digital clock...). Anyway, heres our updates: 2nd January 2009 After catching our train from Agra at 2200 the night before, we arrived at Varanasi Train Station at 1200 the following day - a mere 6 hours late. Not [View Full Entry]

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Happy New Year everyone! To those who asked what New Years Eve is like here....we dont know, 'cos, shock! we were asleep! Well, kinda..we were woken up by the fireworks (and fighting dogs!), but we DO have a valid reason for our rubbishness for a change; one of us was ill - guess which one.... 1st January 2009! ... at 5am on the first day of a new year, we were up and en-route to New Delhi Train Station to catch the 0615 Train to Agra - home of probably India's most famous landmark - The Taj Mahal! It was a [View Full Entry]

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Hello! Welcome to our first official blog from abroad! After 11 months of waiting, planning and saving, we are finally in India and it is crazy! We are spending our final night in Delhi tonight before heading to Agra and the Taj Mahal tomorrow. But before we jump way ahead of ourselves, here's what we've been up to so far... After leaving our parents at Heathrow (and a few tears..from Daniel) we boarded our plane but were late taking off due to the fact the plane's wings needed de-icing! After take-off things went smoothly other than a game of musical chairs [View Full Entry]

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