Arrived safe and well in Shimla. It was the summer capital during the time of the Raj. Today we are going to see the Viceroy's old residence where the empire (approx one fith of the globe at the time) was ruled from during the summer months. It is also the place where the meetings were held finalising Independance and Partition in the forties. We caught the Himalayan Queen here, it is a 'toy' train that runs on tracks about 2 ft wide! Great journey with beautiful scenery the whole way. It is a beautiful place and we can both see why [View Full Entry]

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Dehradun was a nice place but didn't hold very good memories, so it was nice to gain some altitude again and head up to Mussoorie. It's a hill station that was originally created by the british and it's now an Indian holiday escape. It definately had the feel of an old english seaside town (but up a mountain side!). We decided to get the bus and got ourselves psyched up for the mayhem only to find a rather comfortable taxi at a reasonable price. Done. We arrived in good time to a rather chilly high street, spanish archer-ed our way through [View Full Entry]

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We left Bareilly after having what we thought was a pleasant meal at a resturant specifically for families and women! The food tasted pretty good so we were happy to indulge in a chicken dish. We had booked our train ticket the day before which would take us all the way to Derhadun. On booking the ticket we were informed that the coaches were all pretty much booked up and so we were left with little choice but to get a sleeper class coach ticket which would set us back aout Rs 600. This roughly translates into about 8 pounds. For [View Full Entry]

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Arrived in Lumbini refreshed and ready for our next adventure. Well we certainly got that! Left Pokhara early and took yet another tourist bus (yeah, right, wheels hanging off and full of locals) to Lumbini. It took around 7 hours but we are hardcore now and have arses made of steel and so those 7 hours were a breeze! Except that we had been assigned 2 very small seats with minimal leg room for me let alone Tony, and we also had to share our limited space with the bus staff who perched themslves on the rail in front (on our [View Full Entry]

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After leaving Lumbini, we stayed the night in Sonauli before crossing the border back into india. We actually got through all the Bureaucratic form filling and stamping relitively quickly. We were then on a hunt for a bus back to Gorukhpur. We managed to get exactly the same bus that had taken us to Sunauli in the first place (shudder). The bus was packed to bursting point and I had to endure 2 and a half hours with a bloke asleep on my shoulder and one head on my back. Amy had the relative luxury of being between me and the [View Full Entry]

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We started our travels in a city called Kathmandu which was where we last updated this blog. We met up with our group of which there were 1 Norweigien, 1 Londoner, 3 Oz, 3 Kiwi's and a lad from Southampton! (Pompey supporter, Tony was not impressed!) The initial days were spent sight seeing and generally getting to know one another. It was a strange experience after being on our own for several weeks. We vistsed Swayambunath Monkey temple (Tony felt very at home) and Baktaphur which is a world heritage site. This bit is a bit boring so i'll skip to [View Full Entry]

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Well what can I say? The days seem to be merging into one and the memories are starting to get blurred. We have managed to download some photos for you all to see on our blog. Go to gallery to access them. There is a great one of a Rhino! We have one more night left at our guest house before we leave to go to our meeting point hotel. This hotel is in Kathmandu and is where we meet with our guide and other people who may be treking with us. We are both starting to get a little tired [View Full Entry]

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Thank you all for your lovely messages. It takes a long time for the internet to load because the boy pedaling for power tends to get tired after an hour so, so you'll have to be happy with our blog entries. Photos can't be uploaded unless there is an SD slot. Of which there appears to be none...so far. Nepal is beautiful which is a good job considering what we had to go through to get here! Took a bus journey from Varanasi to Sonauli which took around 14 hours. That seems to be the average travl time for us so [View Full Entry]

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Namaste everyone, our first train journey was brill. it was, as we expected, long and with a few hitches along the way. we got to the train station in agra well early, expecting the train to arrive in good time for us to board early and get settled. it didn't! we waited an extra 1 1/2 hours! just enough time for us to get talking to one of the railway police and for him to clear a bench full of locals so that we could sit down. embarrassing!! he shooood them off telling them that we were english. probably for their [View Full Entry]

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we have arrived safe and sound and thought we;d let you know how were getting on here. We arrived in Delhi tired and hot and were instantl hit with the aroma which can be found only in india. We were met at the airport by Raj our driver and he took usto our hotel. It was a very scary experience. The driver beeped and darted through the busy streets and no one was allowed to get in his way. We were told that during the morning an accident had happened. It didn't seemto phase him though. We left Delhi after one [View Full Entry]

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