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 ways. There are 2 bathing pools, one for men and one for women, monkeys can use either. The temple is situated in a narrow valley and the buildings seems [View Full Entry]

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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 the same time. We drove through kilometers of endless urban sprawl followed by endless industrial buildings but we were [View Full Entry]

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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 blast walking up and down the colourful stalls, there were hundreds of them. The people, smells and colours made this a truely memorable experience. After [View Full Entry]

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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 and coffee plantations. This is where "A Passage to India" was filmed. Back on the lowlands the heat soared again as we drove back to [View Full Entry]

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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 lowlands. It was quiet and peaceful, we didn't want to leave. [View Full Entry]

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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 2 fabulous temples, we would have avoided it completely. Our first disapointment in India. Luckily the next day we traveled north to [View Full Entry]

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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 must have taken forever to carve these out of solid granite. They were mostly finished in the 8th century and look as fresh today as they did last month. [View Full Entry]

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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 a local family in their home. They prepared us a lovely meal and then proudly showed off their area on a twilight boat ride in a 250 year old [View Full Entry]

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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 suggestions. But it was magical. We made it to Fort Kochi late on Saturday and checked in to the hotel and slept for what felt like days. By 6 [View Full Entry]

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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. [View Full Entry]

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