http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/lboy/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from lboy en-us Thu, 07 Jan 2010 02:41:23 +0000 Thu, 07 Jan 2010 02:41:23 +0000 Here are some more photos that never got on to the blog. Hope you enjoy them. These are the ones from the GAP Tour of South India. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/blog-280546.html We're home and it feels good. We've travelled half way around the world and arrived back safely. We've seen places we'll always remember and things that we can't forget. We've had great times and tough times. But all of these things are part of the travel experience. Without the bad times the good times wouldn't have been so enjoyable. Without the friends the the places would have been less inter http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Ontario/Toronto/blog-277081.html Well so much for relaxing. This is more intense than India. Jetting in from the subcontinent our feet had barely touched the ground in London before we were wisked off to Liverpool by Doug and Nancy and forced to watch a football match between Everton and Chelsea. Oh well ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Seriously though it was fantastic. My first Premiership game and my first Chelsea game all in o http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-268985.html We're back in Mumbai. This time to stay a little longer than the 2 hours we spent here 5 weeks ago.Mumbai is a bit of an enigma. It's a big Indian city but it's a lot different than others like Delhi and Chennai. It's cleaner more modern and there are more western stye shops and hotels. In some ways this is good you can get an espresso or a salad. In some ways it's not so good there are McDonal http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Maharashtra/Mumbai/blog-268961.html We've left Rajastan now and we've decided to head south again. The trouble with travelling in India is that you can never do anything on the spur of the moment. You have to plan everything days in advance. Not much fun if you want to change plans on a whim.Going from Udaipur we wanted to go to a resort area called Diu in the south of Gujarat. Well that would have taken over 24 hours by train so we http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Gujarat/Ahmedabad/blog-268532.html Our trek through Rajastan is over. We did the final leg from Jhodpur to Udaipur by way of a magnificent Jain Temple. The temple has over a thousand columns every one different. Although it would be more impressive if they had all been identical. The Jains are the ultra orthodox hindus and they don't like shorts in the temple. So I had to rent a lovely pair of pants. The best part was that they ch http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Udaipur/blog-268180.html We were getting deeper and deeper into the desert now. I'd never seen India so barren of people. Everywhere else it was wall to wall bodies. Now we were driving 10 to 20 kms between seeing a soul. The goats outnumbered the people 100 to 1. The people were changing as well. There were turbans on the men and wildly colourful saris on the women. Even the camels were getting in on the action with orna http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Jaisalmer/blog-266957.html We've finally made it to the desert. The terrain is changing rapidly now far fewer crops and cows. Now it's all scrub goats and camels. All of the houses are made of mud with straw roofs and have cute little outbuildings made of dung. Nice.On the way to Bikaner we had a chance to see the rural life in the desert. A way of life that probably hasn't changed much in 500 years. Crops are still gath http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Bikaner/blog-266938.html We're quite sore after the previous days events but like the troopers we are we got back in the car and headed off to Jaisalmer.Jaisalmer is a beautiful fort that is tragically sinking into the desert. It's 500 years old and the sewer system isn't capable of handling the pressure of 25 of the city's population living inside it's walls. So the foundations of the city are being eroded away by the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Jodhpur/blog-265635.html The other fort in Jaipur is the Amber Fort. Where th Jaiger Fort is practical the Amber is majestic. Rising like a sandcastle out of the dusty Rajastani hills.The best way to get to the fort is by elephant. Nothing can prepare you for an elephant ride. It's like being thrown from side to side and up and down at the same time. They are still the most gentle creatures imaginable. Although only fema http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Jaipur/blog-263256.html After leaving Agra everything would probably seem a bit mundane. Or so we thought. Welcome to the Monkey Temple. Unreal Hundreds no thousands of cute little grey monkeys who would eat right out of your hand. And then pick your pockets. The real name of the temple is Galta Sun Temple but because of the number of simians it's know as the Monkey Temple. It is an interesting temple in many other way http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Bharatpur/blog-264341.html Well after a week of blissed out heaven on a beach or two we jetted off to Delhi. Delhi was everything that we thought that it would be. Crowded chaotic and crappy. Got in and got back out again asap.The one good thing that we did was we booked a driver for our trip to Agra and our tour of Rajistan. He'll be our guide for the next 8 days.The drive down to Agra was both dreary and exciting at t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Agra/blog-262670.html So here we are the trip through India is half over and we want to unwind. Where to go....GOA. The land of blissed out hippies and sunworshippers. You can understand why. With the beautiful beaches and cheap hotels they come in droves and stay for months.We started our Goa adventure in Anjuna where we met up with one of the girls from our GAP tour Ayse. We went to the Wednesday bazaar and had a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Goa/Anjuna-Beach/blog-261247.html Well were back to where we started in Kochi. It's been an exciting journey. Finishing up the tour and saying goodbye to all our new friends. Some of whom we're going to be meeting up with later in Goa.This leg started in Ooty. After we left the sanctuary we boarded the Toy Train. A tiny railway built by the British Raj that took us down the mountain to Coonoor. A pretty town surrounded by tea a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Kochi-/blog-259946.html Well we're in the Hill Country again and it's truely beautiful. The only problem is that it's raining up in the mountains.We travelled through the Mudumalai wildlife Sanctuary lots of critters big and small. The monkeys were soooo cute and the elephants magnificent.We stayed at a resort in the sanctuary which was once a retreat for the Brits who wanted to get away from the heat of the the lowland http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Ooty/blog-258878.html We left the flatlands of the interior behind and went on to Pondicherry the former French colony. We walked along the beachfront and had lunch at a French cafe. Most of the architechture had a very Franco feel to it even the police wore french style uniforms.From there we had a short bus ride to Mamallapuram and it's unique single stone temples and carvings. These ones really blew us away. It mu http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Karnataka/Mysore/blog-257052.html We left the cool hills Kerela and went down into the steamy flatlands of Tamil Nadu. The weather went from 20C to about 35C in less than an hour. The state of Tamil Nadu has an incredible number of temples. Big ones small ones some in huge complexes and some just a few feet high on the side of the road.We had a major culture shock in Madurai. It was big overpopulated and grim. If it didn't have http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Periyar-National-Park/blog-257044.html Our journey has been nothing short of amazing and it keeps getting better. Every time we think that we've seen the most incredible place we come across another one.The Backwaters of Kerela was a very tranquil and serene way to unwind from the hustle and bustle of Kochi. Travelling on the canals we saw a way of life that is totally alien from anything that we've ever experienced. We stayed with http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Kollam/blog-256052.html Three days 3countries and 3 planes later we finally made it to India.I can't quite find the words to describe the impact that we felt when we got off the plane in Mumbai. It was hot crowed and frantic. It was organized chaos. The taxi ride from the international airport to the domestic was absolutely unbeleivable. There are no rules on the road. Street signs lanes and speed limits are only sugg http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Kochi-/blog-254227.html Arrived in London to a rainy night. Surprise. But we woke to find that the sun was out and it was a beautiful day. Strolled along the Thames in Richmond and lunched at a pub. Another surprise. Short day and we're of to the airport and our plane to India. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-253823.html