http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Doona/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Doona en-us Mon, 28 Dec 2009 08:07:12 +0000 Mon, 28 Dec 2009 08:07:12 +0000 Well the time has come to say goodbye to India ... with only a few hours remaining before I board a plane here in Mumbai Bombay for Bangkok. Even though I feel ready to leave after 6 months in this magnificent country I'm surprised at how sad I've been the past 2 days leading up to it. Just this morning I was talking to an Indian guy at the ATM about how today was my last day and my eyes welled http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Jodhpur/blog-48681.html It's tourist season but not for foreigners. Rishekesh is teaming with orange clad 18 25 year old boys who travel in packs and donrsquot appear to have much to do. Its festival time and a part from collecting the Ganga in plastic bottles and embarking on a 17km walk these pilgrims hang around the towns of Rishekesh and Haridwar and swim in the Ganga in very poor fitting underwear India def http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttarakhand/Rishikesh/blog-72741.html Since arriving in India I've been told by a few Indian's that I shouldn't travel to Leh on my own. Now that I've done it I'm not really sure why. Sure it's a long journey 17 hours if all goes well but no real danger that I could see.The drive up to Leh was unbelievable. I've never seen landscape like it. Desert mountains and plains raging muddy brown rivers snow capped mountains teal green la http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Jammu-and-Kashmir/Leh/blog-72738.html Ahhhh I love the hill country in India and here in McLeod Gange you can actually see snow capped mountains most days. My timing was perfect lsquocause the Dalai Lama was actually teaching the week I was there hellip and unbelievable to me it was free nothing is free in India Due to the teachings the town was packed and it was really difficult to find accommodation ... well a decent room http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Himachal-Pradesh/Mcleod-Ganj/blog-72737.html Arrived in Amritsar late at night home to the Sikh religion ... so glad I planned ahead and booked my guesthouse lsquocause I arrived to a really nice room with TV and air cooling yay.My main reason for coming here was to see the Golden Temple and the Indian and Pakistan border ceremony ... plus I love the Sikhs Sikh's are the Indians who don't ever cut their hair and wear the turban. I th http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Punjab/Amritsar/blog-66925.html Hmnnn .. made the mistake of stopping in Allahabad instead of going direct to Satna and as a result got stuck there for two days as the trains were all booked. In the end I just bought a general ticket which means every man and woman for themselves everyone pushing and shoving like it's life and death and when you're carrying 25 kilos on your back that means no seat for you So me and about http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Madhya-Pradesh/Khajuraho/blog-66923.html I have to say that Patna is a bit of a nothing town nothing much to see and nothing much to do but it does have The Ganges. I should also mention that the hotel I stayed in was the cleanest I've been in since traveling in India ... what a gift Since arriving in India I've been looking forward to seeing The Ganga. My first sight of it was from the top of the Golghar. A very unusual dome shape http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Varanasi/blog-64881.html What can I say about Kolkatta ...It's definitley one of my favourite Indian cities ... very liveable.We didn't really do a lot although there's plenty to see but mostly we just spent our time walking around taking it all in.The first thing you notice is the beautiful architecture ... the second is the poverty. I think I've really toughened up in the past 7 months but I know that An found it ver http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/West-Bengal/Kolkata/blog-59829.html My mission in coming to the North of India was to escape the suffocating heat of the south and see some mountains. All good in theory however it really wasn't the right time of year to be trekking through the mountains. In 2 weeks I only saw one clear glymse of the magnificent Himalayan mountain ranges the only time I didn't have my camera with me and it only lasted 1 hour before the fog rol http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/West-Bengal/Darjeeling/blog-61949.html Arrived in the state of Orissa which is now closer to Kolkatta North than Chennai South.Originally I wasn't going to come here but An and I were having so much fun travelling together and she wanted to come that I decided to come with her ... and I'm so glad that I didBhubaneswarDay one we jumped on a bus and headed to Konark. It took a lot longer to get there than expected but it was wel http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Orissa/Bhubaneswar/blog-59828.html HYDERABADIt's been a while since I've been in a big city and usually I don't really like them but I really like Hyderabad. It's a great mixture of Indian culture and all things western. A large percentage of the population is Muslim which is very different to where we have been ... just another face of India. At first it was quite strange to see so many women dressed in Burkas ... head to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Andhra-Pradesh/Hyderabad/blog-59827.html There's some really nice Muslim architecture to see in Bijapur ... but I was glad that we were only there for the day. It's a very dusty chaotic city that's spread out so difficult to wander around and check out the sites. We were on an overnight bus to Hyderabad at 9pm so we hired a 3 wheeler for a few hours and toured around the major attractions. GolgumbazBijapur's largest monument is basicall http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Karnataka/Bijapur/blog-58295.html BADAMI Sunday May 76 hours and two buses later we arrived in Badami ... and what a great villageThe actual township is nestled below beautiful red sandstone ridges where there are caves temples and forts and the Agatyatirtha Tank where people swim wash do their laundry and the dishes from that day's cooking. After finding somewhere to stay we set out to explore the rockcut caves. As always http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Karnataka/Badami/blog-58294.html Travelling can really be a case of survival of the fittest with a bit of luck thrown in. It took us 17 hours and 3 buses but finally we made it to Hampi. We were lucky that the overnight bus from Bangalore to Hampi wasn't full so we could each have two seats but the road was so bad that I woke up several times on the floor. You can imagine the expletives coming from my mouth with such a rude a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Karnataka/Hampi/blog-57283.html Sounds strange I'm sure ... but it felt a bit like coming home flying back into India. It was a 4am flight and I had to be at the airport 3 hours before so by the time I checked into my guest house at 6.30am I was pretty delirious.It was so hot I could barely breathe but I managed to grab a couple of hours sleep before An arrived. That night we went to the movies my first time in 6 months and t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Jodhpur/blog-58287.html From Sun April 23 until Fri April 28 we pretty much hung out at the beach. First stop was Mirrissa. We stayed at a fantastic guesthouse Long Wave run by the most beautiful family. The mothers cooking was outstanding April is out of season so not the best time of year to be swimming quite rough but still a great place to recharge the batteries after a really hectic 23 weeks.In Hikkaduwa we http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Sri-Lanka/blog-58276.html Some things just aren't meant to be.We really diliberated over should we or shouldn't we do a safari in the hope we'll see elephants in the wild. It's a very expensive exercise ... an entire weeks budget for An and I but we decided to take a chance.We should have realised that luck wasn't on our side when half an hour into the safari we got seriously bggged and it took us a good 45 minutes to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Sri-Lanka/Southern-Province/Yala-NP/blog-58282.html There are some accomplishments in life that you can be truely proud of for me one of them was making it to the top of Adams Peak. 7360 feet 2243 meters high... when at the top you are looking down on surrounding mountain ranges. The mountain is actually known by 3 different namesAdams Peak the place where Adam first set a foot on earth after being cast out of heavenSri Pada sacred footp http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Sri-Lanka/Sabaragamuwa-Province/Adam-s-Peak/blog-55690.html Sigiriya is a tiny little town with not much to see accept the rock so we got an early night so we could get up at 5am to commence our climb before it got too hot. As daylight approached we walked through beautifully landscapes gardens. 200m above the fortress awaited. Built in the 5 century it was originally designed as a rock fortress but later became a monastic refuge. It has the oldest su http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Sri-Lanka/blog-55497.html Sri Lanka has many... many... many public holidays and whilst on our tour of the ancient cities they were celebrating New Year which means more chaos to an already chaotic public transport system. But An and I can be stubborn little buggers and every time some one told us something was not possible madam it just make us dig our heals in and find a way to make it possible. So even though many peo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Sri-Lanka/blog-55488.html