Allahabad and Varanasi are both cities intimately connected with Hindu mythology. I had been following the Yamuna river from Agra, where the Taj Mahal backs onto it, to Allahabad, where three Hindu holy rivers meet. The Yamuna joins with the Ganges, and in theory so does the Saraswati, but that's mythological river. Because of this, the confluence if the three is considered one of the most auspicious places to undertake religious bathing. Every year, usually in February, there is a mass gathering of Hindus here, called a Mela, usually in February. Every 12 years there is a particularly big gathering known as the Kumbh Mela - the next one if February 2013. The Kumbh Mela is the world's largest single gathering of people in one place - tens of millions of them. The place where it ... read more

I Have now arrived in Delhi after leaving Amritsar this morning. Yesterday was a very full in Amritsar so finished feeling rather hot, tired and grubby. I got to Amritsar on Friday evening and since the Golden Temple stays open pretty late, I took the opportunity to pay a night-time visit. At about 10:30 there is a ceremony in which a copy of the Sikh hold book is carried back from its daytime location (in the temple in the middle of the pool) to its storage area. I spent about and hour and a half there wondering around the whole temple complex. To be allowed to enter the complex you must remove shoes (and socks!) and cover your hair. There are many people outside selling temporary hair scarves so I bought one of those and then ... read more

The Angkor temples is the name given to a large group (more than one hundred) temples located around Siem Reap with the main group, including Angkor Wat itself, being just a few miles north of Siem Reap. Angkor Wat is particularly famous, primarily for being the largest temple in the world, but many of the others are also iconic in their own way. I had allowed myself a full three days in Siem Reap so that I could spend two days looking at the temples with a third day if required. In the event two days was plenty at one go and if I was going to look at some others I would like a gap between them! Sunday 7th August I decided to view the furthest away ones that I was interested in first so ... read more

On Saturday I decided to have another day off for a bit more sight-seeing. I had read in the Cambodia guide book about a Buddhist temple built at the bottom of a limestone outcrop containing many caves, so I decided to make that the focus of a day trip. The temple is called Wat Kiri Sela and is just outside a town called Kompong Trach. After asking around I learnt that get a bus to Kompong Trach I would first need to get to another town called Angk Ta Saom. This town is on the main route from the capital Phnom Penh to the coastal resorts in southern Cambodia, and the buses that travel that route make a rest stop at Angk Ta Saom. I was told that a bus should arrive at about 9am so ... read more

A Day Off Since the monks' English class only seems to run Monday to Friday I decided to go and do my first bit of sight-seeing on Saturday. Takeo province is very flat and low-lying so it is always affected quite badly in the wet season. Cambodia basically has only two seasons, the dry season and the wet season, and we are currently in the middle of the wet season. To the north of Takeo there is a year-round lake but the farm land to the east, as far as the Mekong river, floods dramatically during the wet season. There is also a major canal starting in Takeo and running east. About 20 miles to the east there is a small town called Angkor Borei which straddles this canal, and this was where I headed. Near ... read more