We went to Kanha national park hoping to see tigers in the wild, so awoke just before sunrise and climbed into a jeep to track down our 'prey'. Throughout the morning we saw many deer and moneys but no tigers. As we drove around the dirt tracks we saw vultures flying to a patch of grass and could just make out the body of a dead deer. As we watched something must of scared birds because suddenly 20 or 30 vultures took to the air, flying in all directions. Having these huge birds flying all around us was very impressive. Once [View Full Entry]

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Christmas eve was spent on a train bound for Amritsar. We awoke Christmas day to some young children singing gingel bells. Tracy and I both had Father Christmas hats which we worn more for their warmth than festive cheer. Amritsar at Christmas time is cold. After getting a hotel room, we went off to have our Christmas dinner. Turkey was not an option so I went for chicken tikka masala. With full bellies we took an auto-rickshaw down to the Golden Temple and after washing our hands, feet and covering our heads, we spent the rest of the day enjoying the [View Full Entry]

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After a freezing overnight bus trip we disembarked at 4am in what we were told was Pushkar. The dark, empty streets gave no indication that this was a “mystical town around a holy lake”, as described in our guide book. As we got our bearings, and our bags, a smiling young man with a limp appeared and escorted us to our hotel. We were given blankets, shown to our room and left to enjoy the sleep our bus journey had denied us. We awoke late, opened the doors to our balcony and were greeted by a view of a mystical town [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Jodhpur and were besieged by auto rickshaw drivers the moment we got off the bus. Then out of the chaos appeared a smiling face who said he would pay for our rickshaw if we had a look at his hotel. Although no thing is ever for free in India, we took him up on his offer. The hotel turned out to be nice, with a good crowd of people, so we stayed, but I'm sure we paid for the rickshaw at some point! Jodhpur is a great place with a huge rock fort towering over the narrow, crowed [View Full Entry]

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The only reason we went from Mumbai to Ahmedbad was to pick up a connecting train to Udaipur, so we weren't expecting much and we weren't disappointed. Traffic, that's how I would describe the city. There was a nice temple, a few mosques and an interesting well but no getting away from the traffic. It wasn't even 7 lane highway type traffic that impresses by its shear volume. No, this was whiny little motorbike traffic that comes at you from every direction and beeps it's horn in your right in your ear. On to Udaipur. Wow! Sitting on a rooftop having [View Full Entry]

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We left Goa for Mumbai on an over night train, due to arrive at Mumbai CST at 6am the next day. Around midnight a number of people were talking on their mobile phones, saying there had been a bomb attack at Mumbai CST. The train stopped at the next station and didn't move for quite some time Some people got off but Tracy and I saw no point in leaving the train. We would still have to get to Mumbai somehow and getting off at a random station would not help. Without wanting to sound callous, I remember thinking that the [View Full Entry]

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Our day hike in the Periyar Tiger Sanctuary took us through hills, valleys and wide-open spaces. We saw large groups of black monkeys swinging through the tree tops and wild bison grazing on near vertical hillsides. We never actually saw any elephants but our guides were very worried about the loud swishing and huffing noises we heard whist walking through an area of 2 meter high grass. The guide carrying the riffle had his finger on the trigger at one point. Once we were clear of the area they explained that a big male elephant was wandering around in the grass [View Full Entry]

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Our time in south east India came to an end with a lazy day in Kanyakumari, right at the southern tip of the continent. The seaside town was geared towards homegrown tourism and the street hawkers were much more interested in the groups of Indian tourists than us. Teenage boys lapped up the funky sunglasses on offer, whist families played in the sea, with the women splashing in the shallows in full sari. Then in complete contrast we headed up the south west coast to Varkla. This cliff-top town was almost completely dominated by us Westerners, with banana pancakes aplenty. The [View Full Entry]

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We left Pondecherry for Trichy on Monday 27th October, Diwali. From the moment we woke up we could hear firecrackers being let off all around town. As we waited for our train it was like a mini war was taking place a few streets away from the station. Trichy seemed very unimpressive at first, but a short ricksharw ride took us to the Rock Fort Temple. A huge rock which towered over the town with a couple of temples dotted around the 400 plus steps that lead to the top. The climb was not as bad as I thought and the [View Full Entry]

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After two lazy, air conditioned weeks in Bangalore, we left for Chennai (Madras) on the early morning train. Chennai is much hotter, humid and polluted but our room was cheap (less than the price of a single cocktail in Bangalore). Spent the day looking around the town and saw a few nice sights, had some great food. The whole beach front was taken up by a political rally for the next head of state. Lots of flag waving, dancing and signing. Can't imagine Gordon Brown dancing on the beach. Took a day trip to Kanchipuram via local train. Saw many temples [View Full Entry]

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