simonandamy

In Agra, the incomparable Taj Mahal exceeded every expectation. Perhaps more surprisingly, so did our final stop in Delhi. The final stretch of our Indian Odyssey took these weary travellers to Agra in the state of Uttar Pradesh and then on to the Indian capital, Delhi. We had most certainly saved the best until last, and as a result finished our Asian Adventure on an absolute high. We've had a while to think about what to write in this final Indian blog, we're still struggling for the right way to describe the magic of the Taj Mahal - there are simply no words. Whether it's the first glimpse we got from our guesthouse roof, watching the dying rays of the sunlight on the marble dome with a beer in hand, admiring the incredibly detailed gem inlay ... read more

From the symbol of Modern India in Mumbai to the heart of Ancient India at Ellora... ...our visit to Maharashtra was marked by contrast - obscene wealth and abject poverty, aging colonialism and fierce nationalism, rampant commercialism and serene spirtuality. All in all, a place that was very, very, Indian! Following a reasonable sleeper bus ride from Goa (sweet sweet sleeping pills) we were deposited in an unknown location in Mumbai. After finding our bearings and booking some trains at the Chetrapati Shivaji Terminus - the erstwhile (Indians always use that word) Victoria Terminus, we upset the taxi touts by spurning their invitations and catching a public bus to Colaba (Amy had to run and jump and just made it on) to the tourist centre of Colaba in South Mumbai. All guide books say to ignore ... read more

Karnataka - home to the Wodeyar Maharajah's royal city of Mysore and the ancient ruins of the Vijayanagar Empire at Hampi The change of state equaled a change of pace for us, now halfway through our circumnavigation of the subcontinent. Picking up the pace from our lazy sojourn through Kerala, we roared into Karnataka and the royal city of Mysore on an air-conditioned overnight bus - we actually got cold! Kick starting our first days of conventional sightseeing since Kolkata, we visited the magnificent onion-domed Mysore Palace shining in gold. Completed in 1912 and designed by an English architect in the Indo-Saracenic style - a blend of Hindu, Islamic, and European styles. Whatever it was it was a building like nothing we had seen before. The interior (in which photography is not allowed) was equally as ... read more

Tamil Nadu - a land of beaches and temples, where its ok for grown men to wear nappies, hold hands in public, and grow the most extraordinary moustaches As we headed into our second week of eating off banana leaves, using female urinals (in Amy's case that is...), and acclimatising to the Indian heat - we splashed out on fancy air conditioned tickets for our 30 hour train trip from Kolkata to Chennai. All of NZ$45! The train allowed us to bypass a chunk of central India (not to mention the states where trains get hijacked...) in search of the beaches of the south - all in air-conditioned comfort with meals served at our seats. We rolled into Chennai for just one night as our bible (aka. the lonely planet) basically didn't offer one positive word ... read more

We didn't intend to write a blog about this, but we thought the story was worth sharing... It was supposed to be an easy journey from Kathmandu to the Indian border near Darjeeling - instead it turned into quite an adventure! Sitting in a french cafe in Darjeeling the morning after we arrived, eating eggs with chippolata's (and listening to Fat Freddy's Drop of all things) it kind of all felt like it never happened! The story goes something like this... After an uneventful 10 hour bus ride from Kathmandu to Janakpur (a hot and dusty little town on the Nepali plains where we had decided to break the trip), we were informed on arrival at the bus station that there was a "strike" and we would not be able to get a bus to the ... read more