Ok so as every one should know we are back in England, I know we are really bad at keeping up to date. Well even in the same month month would be good. Anyway we spent some time in this lovely town. I highly recommend this little town with so many interesting palaces and some of the friendliest people in India. A great little river that you can swim in as anybody will tell you there aren't many. They also have these amazing vultures. It was a great place to start saying goodbye to India. we stayed in this wicked place [View Full Entry]

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December 10th 2006 We made it after a journey of 10 hours, on roads that were by far the worst we have experienced but it was made a little bit more comfortable because we were in a car. We arrrive about 11.30 at night. After a good sleep we awoke to hundreds off parrots squawking in the morning. After a yoga morning session we went and checked out the temples which were amazeing and rather naughty. We met some ladies from Spain orginised a share taxi to Orcha. A much shorter and pleasant journey. [View Full Entry]

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We had a great 26hr train journey to Varanassi , thankfully we had arranged for somebody to meet us and take us to the hotel. Thus avoiding the harassment and after such a joyfull journey the last thing you want is to deal with are the sharks. Our hotel had a cool view of the river. The only bummer was the monkey troop haveing a domestic right outside the door. Next morning we went exploring, Varanassi is amazeing, the old city full of alleys and little shops. You honestly feel though you are in a totaly different time. We found a [View Full Entry]

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We deff needed rest after the most hellish journey in India to date from Shimla, the small train down from Shimla was great had a whole compatment to ourselves, but from then on we missed our conection as a stupid guard put us on the wrong platform. Then we got on another train, had to get off at 2am then on another train where we counldnt find a seat and had to camp outside the toilet till 7am the next morning it stunk of pee but the locals found it very amuzeing as we were sharing the floor with them. Rishikesh [View Full Entry]

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So we arrived at the hill station a place when people from Delhi need to get away from the heat. Shimla is about 2000m above sea level I think. The town is built on a hill with lots of steep hills and hardly any space for cars so you walk every where, loads of fun with a heavy rucksack. We found a really cool/kitch/boogie nights room round bed, mirrors on the ceiling, velvet drapes and false flowers. The view was pretty amazeing to. Shimla is a really quirky place with loads of character. English Tudor mixed with temples, monkeys in the [View Full Entry]

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After another hectic hair raising journey we arrived safely, a miracle in McLeod Ganj. We have decided to stick to trains from now on. This is where the Displaced Tibetian goverment as well as the Dalai Lama are based while the Chinese continue to occupy Tibet. It is like a little Tibet with loads of tourists and Indian tourists alike come to relax. It was so nice to soak up a very differnt culture and a very much welcomed break from curry, the Mo Mo dumplings were so scrummy and the noodle soup yum yum yum! We did very little which [View Full Entry]

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It was not where we had planned to go but we met a very convincing tout hence the hustle and kind of ended up on a plane the next day.We flew in over the Himalayas which was breathtaking. Landing in Shrinigar Airport was like landing in an army air base, fighter jets housed in camo painted tunnels infact everything was painted camo. We were met by armed army personel who herded all the passengers into arrivals. We were then escorted out of the airport by another guard who made sure we got into the car with the right person. We then [View Full Entry]

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The first thing that hit us when we entered the city of Agra was the smog, the pollution was so bad there it was like thick fog. Of course the main reason we were there was to see one of the great wonders of the world the Taj Mahal which is breath takingingly beautifull. One side of the river tourist heaven and the other full of poverty such a stark contrast of the those that have and have not. We got up a 6am to try and beat the crowds which we had all of 10 mins of peace with the [View Full Entry]

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Bling Bling, I have never seen so many jewelry stores in my life not just the fake stuff though the big Cahoona rubies and emeralds which we saw raw and being polished by hand in the Muslim part of the city which is famous for precious stones. If I was a rich girl la la la la la I would have bought, but not so just admired and dreamed as I held them in my paws. We took an old cylcle rickshaw ride round the Pink city with our rickshaw driver who had the brightest smile and the most disheveled hair, [View Full Entry]

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Shekhawati was truly Haveli heaven, beautifull and very old and also very delapidated which was both sad and wonderfull at the same time. The people were so friendly and calm old tailors sewing on the street while matress makers stuffed their new matresses with new cotton puffs and the sound of a cow mooing every so often, a sound that always makes Clive and I laugh everytime. This place was like it has always been never changing with a crumbleing majestic charm all around and looking like it will all crumble to the ground eventually into dust. We only spent a [View Full Entry]

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