Blogs from Madhya Pradesh, India, Asia - page 6

Da anni ormai l'India cerca di promuoversi come meta turistica a livello internazionale e, dopo accesi dibattiti ed aspri scontri tra esperti di pubbliche relazioni, dopo aver abbandonato aggettivi troppo ottimistici quali "fantastica", "meravigliosa" o "stupenda", si e' trovato un accordo su un molto piu' che realistico "Incredible !ndia", diventato lo slogan ufficiale di tutte le campagne promozionali del paese. Lo stato del Madhya Pradesh si e' poi autoproclamato "Il cuore" di questa incredibile India, in virtu' della sua posizione geografica e del cospicuo numero di attrattive di cui puo' orgogliosamente vantarsi; sara' dovere del Mercante passare a controllare la veridicita' di queste affermazioni.... Arrivando dal Nepal, capisco di essere finalmente in India quando comincio a sentire nominare il nome di Sonia Gandhi. Ansiosi di poter fare pratica... read more

Our overnight train from Varanasi was pleasant—we met two well-traveled English brothers and enjoyed their company. In addition to the English brothers, there also happened to be a large group of people speaking a Slavic language (we thought Russian). But not only were they speaking it—they started singing Russian folk songs while passing around what we could only assume was vodka. It was probably our most random experience in India (and that’s saying something)—a set each of American and English siblings listening to Russians cheerfully singing folk songs as we took a train across Uttar Pradesh into Madhya Pradesh. Once we arrived in Khajuraho at 6am, we attempted to negotiate a good price to our hotel by tuk-tuk. In retrospect, we should have stuck with the brothers, but they hadn’t yet booked a hotel, so they ... read more

It wasn’t the easiest place to get to, but the fort at Orccha is the best we’d seen in India. It also wasn’t the most opulent or the most fascinating historically, but it was the most fun architecturally, with a complicated web of passageways and doorways seemingly randomly leading to different areas of the fort – it would have been the perfect place to play Hide-and-Seek as a kid. Honestly, I think you could hide for days within its walls. The Fort of Orccha sits on the Betwa River and is actually a conglomerate of several large palaces and buildings built during different times. The ruins and the fort buildings themselves are extremely well kept, while the views from the palace are extraordinary, especially towards the Chaturbuj Temple, built in the 9th century, across the river. ... read more

It's been a while since I've been anywhere with internet, and unfortunatley the small local cafe that criminally attempted to charge me 100R p/h has some very poor computers, and so though I have 3 hours to kill before my train to Bhopal, I can't access my hotmail or upload photos to flickr. I've now got 6 books in my backpack that I'm steadily working through, so at least I have reading to occupy me during the long transit waits. Sorry to any family or friends who have emailed me recently - I'm unable to reply at the moment! Khajuraho was a noisier, more 'touristy' and less friendly town than Orchha, and though the temples were in near-pristine condition and the carvings were superb, I was after 24 hours already looking to leave. The international airport ... read more

Well, the jury is out on India…one week into the trip here and I have very mixed feelings about the place so far. It’s not like I didn’t know what I was getting into by choosing to come here but wow, more adaptation on my part required. It could be that we’ve been travelling so much in only a few days that there hasn’t been time to sit back and absorb it all. Also, it’s been unseasonably cold, which has been unexpected (there shouldn’t be only a 10 degree temperature difference between Calgary and Delhi – that’s just not right). Another seven weeks will make or break me – the odds are pretty even right now as to which way it might go! January 23… I arrived in Delhi after an uneventful flight from Colombo. The ... read more