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 gathered by hand, mud huts are homes, camels are the beast of burden and irrigation is done by waiting for the monsoon. Of course there is some electricity and most of the goods taken to market are trucked, but the bulk of the work is done manually. Truely backbreaking work. The next stop was a true piece of luck. ... read more

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 to be carved out of the rock face. Definitely worth the drive. After the Monkey Temple we drove off to Jaipur. A town with 2 forts and lots of Palaces, monuments and other assorted temples. ... read more

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 spending a couple of days in Anjuna, we took a taxi up the coast to Arambol. This place has a spectacular beach. Long, clean and lined with beach shacks and restaurants. The waves aren't that ... read more

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. ... read more

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 Trichy. A lovely city that gave us back our enthusiasm. Tomorrow it's on to Pondicherry, the old French territory on the Bay of Bengal. ... read more