Bhubaneswar We are near the end of our Indian Subcontinent travel odyssey and decided to spend some time in lovely Orissa as it had been recommended by several people and was on the way to Calcutta anyway. We arrived in Bhubaneswar off the train from Vijayawada and Hampi and were pretty tired. We had a very nice room in Rohilla Tourist Home and spent a couple of days wandering around the ancient Hindu temples of the Orissan State capital, looking in the crowded markets and staying out of the intense sun. The Orissa State Museum though a little dusty was a [View Full Entry]

---

---

After a day spent in Bangalore (we saw 'Memoirs of a Geisha' at a really flashy cinema and hung out in a lovely colourful park) we got on the Hampi express and met up with some really nice people at the train station in Bangalore all on their way to Hampi. We arrived into Hospet and rickshawed to the river bank in Hampi to take our boat to the Heart of Darkness on North side of the river. Straight away I think everybody is struck by the landscape. It's kind of primal like the Himalayas. You never tire of looking at [View Full Entry]

---

---

We didn't spend too long in Tamil Nadu although we'd originally intended spending 3 weeks temple-hopping our way from Madurai and Ramaswaram up to Trichy, Mamallapuram and Tirupati (in Andhra Pradesh). It was just too hot and after seeing th epretty representative Meenakshi Temple in Madurai with it's buzz and hubbub we decided to literally head for the hills - the Nilgiri Hills and the hill station of Kodaikanal which we really loved. Kodaikanal has a lovely climate and reminded me of what it feels like to be out on an Autumn day in Ireland. The hills are pretty untouched and [View Full Entry]

---

---

Arriving into Kochin Overnight from Bombay by train to Kochin with a lovely young Bombayite couple, Amit and Renu, we arrived into the Keralan state refreshed and covered in Mehndi patterns (henna). Fort Kochin is on an island and is best accessed by a local ferry - a great way to arrive anywhere. We spent a few days hanging around at the beach and watching the local fishermen coming in with some impressive catches. The Chinese fishing nets here are beautiful at sunset but are now a dying tradition. Most fishermen were only 'catching tourists' by asking a few rupees or [View Full Entry]

---

---

After leaving Bhuj we made our way to the Southern Gujurati Saurasthra region in part to climb the 10,000 steps of the Jain pilgrimage route at Girnar Hill (near Junugadh). We hoped that our Nepali trekking experience would carry us through but that trial was fading from muscle memory. Apart from Junugadh we also paid a visit to the last place in the world where the Asian lion is still untamed and extant. Did we see one? Did we come across this king of the animal kingdom? Did we see it bounding towards our broken down jeep with terrifying speed and [View Full Entry]

---

---

So we are heading South. Originally we were trying to get to the former Portugese colony of Diu but due to the extortionate prices being demanded for accommodation over Christmas we changed tack and ventured out into the Kuutch area of North-Western Gujurat. We passed through Ahmedabad and after visiting Gandhi's famous Sagarmati Ashram made our way west towards Bhuj which was so horrifically destroyed by a huge earthquake back in 2001. We stopped at Mandvi for a few days before going to a Nature Cure centre called 'Navjivan' for 10 days. Yes, we are really slowing our pace of travel [View Full Entry]

---

---

After our 6 day camel trek brought us to Jodhpur. It was nice to be back in civilisation. Jodhpur, with it's fantastic Fort. The so-called 'Blue City'. I really enjoyed it here although we stayed in four different rooms on our four separate nights there (dogs, loud prayers) it is a great city and certainly puts Jaipur to the sword in terms of general friendliness and ambiance. We did some shopping here, wandered the streets, tried to get a look at Sean Bean who was filming an episode of Sharpe in the Fort and ate some great omlettes. What more can [View Full Entry]

---

---

We crossed the land border at Sunauli at the start of December and after a couple of days in Kushinigar (the site where Buddha Gottama died) we headed to Rajasthan. We spent a couple of days in Jaipur. It was certainly not my favourite place. Dusty. Loud. Expensive (relatively). After Jaipur we took the desert train to Bikaner to start a camel safari through to Jodhpur. Bikaner is a nice little city - a bit of the main trail which goes straight to Jodhpur from Jaipur but with it's own charms: the obligatory Fort with Military Museum, markets and chai-wallahs. Our [View Full Entry]

---

---

While waiting around in Kathmandu for the Indian visa to come through we had a few days to kill so headed for a 5 day trip to Chitwan. We wanted to see tigers and wild elephants but we were there at the wrong time (best time is February - March when elephant grasses have been burned and you can see animals!). We also managed a couple of days white-water rafting on the Tresuli river which was great fun. We didn't see the big animals but saw the rare one-horned rhino, deer, wild boar, gharial and magar crocodiles and loads of types [View Full Entry]

---

---

We spent the descent sliding on our backsides in the thick snow! After the dizzy heights of Thorung La we expected the rest of the Circuit to be less impressive. How wrong we were! The scenery changed from icy frozen tundra, valleys and peaks to dusty, rocky wasteland. If anything it was even more impressive passing through the old kingdom of Mustang with it's squat stone houses and villages, the Kali Gandaki (deepest canyon in the world), Muktinath temple complex, Poon Hill and the last days to Pokhara. No time to write more. It is something you just have to experience [View Full Entry]

---

---